Smash On! Re: Ultimate
by GoodestBoy
Summary: Follow the story of a Mii as they get accustomed to living within a house full of Smash Bros fighters, from action-packed fights to strange slice of life adventures, there'll be a lot in store for anyone who comes to settle their boredom in Smash.
1. Chapter 1-An Exciting Welcome Pt1

**These characters are not owned by me and of course, belong to Nintendo and their respective companies! That said, I hope you enjoy this chapter's story! For the sake of imagery, please imagine the Mii Fighter as you would Pit or any other anime-looking person in Smash!**

* * *

'Mr. Blue Sky' played softly through the boy's headphones as he stared out of the lightly fogged up glass panes of the bus. He brushed his hands passed his freckles, blue eyes hidden behind glasses and pushed aside the long messy fringe of brownish-blondish hair he had. He had hoped that the calming rhythms of his 'relaxing' playlist would help put his mind at ease as his destination got closer, but if anything it only made their anxiousness grow. Breaks in the song allowed him to hear the mutters and chattering of the other passengers, for the most part it was just wild excitement with a mix of curiosity dashed about as to who would be in the first match today. People were hoping to see Mario and Link kick things off, both being faces of the Nintendo run tournament. The boy too wished this would be the case. He wished it would be anyone of any pairing, as long as it wasn't him. It may have been a little self-indulgent, but he began to tap the 'Mii Channel' against the sides of his packed suitcase, the thought of that melody was always able to calm him but now just reminded him of the responsibilities he carried as the Mii representative. Years ago, when Nintendo had released Smash on their last console they had introduced the concept of Miis as playable fighters, but had gathered no representatives for the show over at 'Smash On!'. Now he didn't remember if there was any outrage from the Mii community or any community over this decision, but for some reason years later Nintendo had decided to hold an invitational for Miis to enter and win a lodging and job at the Smash Manor. And he had won. Sam Phoenix, a name he had chosen for himself, was the Mii representative chosen to fight the new 'Smash On!'. Just reminding himself of that sent shivers down his spine and made him clutch his suitcase tighter. If anyone had to fight today, please let it be someone else.

He had expected some sort of luxury escort or flight to get to Smashville, but to his surprise, they had simply told him to get the soonest bus he could when he was ready to join everyone. He wasn't a spoilt boy or anything, he just couldn't picture the likes of Mario or Link being told to hitch a hike or learn a bus schedule. Then again, a random Mii wasn't an A-list celebrity like those two either. Still, he was fine with that. It gave him a little more hope that a quiet travel meant less fuss would be made of him and he wouldn't have to fight. He did like to fight, that's how he earned his spot, but it was just a lot of responsibility to perform well in his first match, and if it was an opening day match that anxiety would only double. He remembered the last opening match from the previous 'Smash On!' had been a battle between Lucario and Charizard. A surprising one, given the lack of newcomer presence, but the fans always loved a good pokemon battle that wasn't like the games they stared in. But more than remembering the fight, he remembered how entranced by it he was. The speed, the power, the ferocity and mind-games behind each fighter's actions was so intense, so alluring that before long he was addicted to watching the weekly fights and reruns of battles on the Smash Channel. After that, he got involved with the social community in Miiverse, met friends as they all talked about the matches they'd see on TV and the matches they'd play on their respective Wii-Us. He remembered his friends laughing at the idea of a Mii representative actually showing up at 'Smash On!', how they'd laughed at him but now, they were the last ones he saw before getting on the bus wishing him good luck. Perhaps, maybe if he was to fight today they'd watch and he could do them proud. That would be nice.  
"Alright boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen I hope you're ready." The driver's voice echoed through the bus speakers, "Just one more hill and then we'll be in sight of Smashville."  
Or maybe it wouldn't be that nice.

Smashville in this regard was not the stage often people got confused with, but a city built by Nintendo. While people loved their games, especially Smash, Nintendo quickly figured that people love live events much much more. And what had started as a series of arena fights featuring their beloved characters, quickly spawned into a national phenomenon drawing in challengers, business and people from all over the universe. Before long, the land was bought and Nintendo had built a city on top of it, just to house their characters in-between game-making and also house 'Smash On!'. And the city, now coming into Sam's eyes as he peered through the window, was a sight to behold. At first glance it looked like any other city with a gathering of skyscrapers and busy streets; but, the closer they got the more they could see. Specialised merchandise stores and restaurants, floods of pokemon and extraterrestrial beings, humans, miis and a much, much larger mix of diversity. There were various sports centres and supervised cage fights for people to partake in. And as much of a city for fighting as it was, there were so many more peaceful places he could see. Villas across the far back of the hills behind the city, lakes and parks which ran throughout, it was truly a beautiful mix of nature and technology. The most eye-catching thing rested in the middle of the city though. A stadium, as long as Manhattan and taller than some mountains he had seen, with queues and queues of people gathering towards it as the opening ceremony got closer and closer. That was the 'Smash On!' stadium, where all the magic the boy had seen on TV all those years ago took place. The place where the idols he looked up to met and traded blows, the place where he could now finally stand. His eyes began to sparkle while his chest welled up with overwhelming excitement at the sight of the stadium, wiping away his worries for the time being as all he could think about was the rush of combat. And then, his eyes moved towards the sky where he spotted the lodging he was destined to go to. The Smash Manor. A floating, reportedly TARDIS like home which housed near endless facilities and space for the representatives to live and relax in between matches and between their long trips to go make games. While it was known some would come and stay here from time to time, from paparazzi reports, often the majority of fighters would leave for the longest time and have a huge reuniting like today. How would he fit in? How awkward would it be? How many of the rumours were true? He wasn't sure, but he could both wait and not wait to find out when suddenly the stopping of the bus had decided that for him.

He dragged the heavy suitcase of the steps of the bus and nearly fell down onto the relatively quiet city street, thanking the bus driver before looking around. He had come from a city, just not one built like this. It was full of references, nods to various franchises within building layout, geography and even strangers had similar looks to video games he played. Though, as lost in his awe as he was, he did find himself thinking one question as he turned his attention back towards the Smash Manor.  
"How on Earth am I supposed to make it up there?" He mumbled to himself, panic and confusion now coming back to him.  
He had no maps, no knowledge of this city and no contact from Nintendo to help him get around. As the boy started panicking, looking around like a lost puppy, his fighting instincts failed to notice the rapidly approaching object from above.

* * *

Moments earlier, atop of a building shaped like the logo for Nintendo 64, sat a familiar brunette haired angel. Looking bored, and scrolling through his phone only to glance up whenever a new bus pulled in, the angel sighed as the bus pulled away with no-one of particular interest standing out to him.  
"Aw geez, if I knew the Mii guy was gonna be appearing from a random bus I would've asked Ganon to at least give me more than a photo before flying off to be the first one to meet him. Think next-time Pit, think!" The angel groaned, flicking at his own hair.  
Suddenly, the shrill yell of surprise grabbed his attention as he watched a boy, looking around his physical age stumble onto the streets with a suitcase and looking towards the manor with confusion. Pit quickly flicked over to the photos on his phone and matched the boy on the street with the one he had and smiled widely, wings spreading in anticipation of the boy's sudden dive. Like an owl, silent but rapidly moving, Pit glided down through the air and grabbed the unsuspecting boy before anyone in the local area could react to either of them. Sam, slowly trying to process what happened looked down to the ground, being a little thankful he had such a tight hold of his belongings and then back up where he saw the young angel rising higher and higher into the sky with him.  
"Um...Hello." The Mii-fighter said calmly, panic and surprise somehow trapped by confusion for now.  
"Ah! Hello!" Pit replied cheerfully, looking down at his capture, "I didn't actually expect you to be able to speak properly, sorry!"  
"It's...It's fine." Sam replied before looking forwards.  
No, it wasn't. He was hundreds of miles up in the air, snatched up by one of his idols in the blink of an eye and still not quite following what had all just happened in the span of ten seconds or so. That's when the panic decided to surface.  
"W-wait what's going on?" The boy stuttered, squirming about in a panic, "Y-you're Pit, like _the_ Pit!"  
"Heh, I suppose I am." Pit replied, smiling smugly over the recognition.  
"C-can we like, um, m-maybe just slow down a-and just talk for a moment?" Sam asked, looking towards the very, very long down ground with a little more worry now.  
"No can do Mr...Hey, what is your name?" Pit asked.  
"Sam! Sam Phoenix!"  
"Oh, sweet-well no can do Mr Phoenix!" The angel continued, "I gotta fly us up to the Manor and be as covert as possible I was told!"  
Sam didn't quite follow what he meant, it was probably due to the angel being quite a star around these parts and Nintendo wanted more attention to be on the exhibition match than it did a random scoop of one of their reps walking around the city with a strange boy.  
"A-alright!" Sam called up.  
"Honestly don't sweat it, I'll get us there in a-oh no." Pit said, voice full of dread as he felt the magic from his wings began to burst into the air.  
And before long, they were falling.  
"W-what the hell is going on?" Sam shouted out as they were reaching terminal velocity.  
"Well, I um...I kinda forgot to ask Lady Palutena for some more magic before the flight, s-sorry!" Pit yelled back, "I-it'll be fine! Just recover towards the nearest building you can alright?"  
"You can't be serious?" Sam asked, giving the boy a look of fear.  
"Totally!" Pit smiled with excitement, taking more of an upright stance as they fell and looked around.  
There was something about Pit's confidence and the smile that made the fighter feel more at ease. Maybe it was the delusion born from a sudden adrenaline rush, but despite falling at near terminal velocity towards the concrete floor, a sudden feeling of 'you can do this' washed over him. Pit, who was no stranger to falling, allowed himself to fall faster than the boy he'd just met and used the last bit of his magic to give him a burst of horizontal flight towards the nearest building where he grabbed the ledge and managed to pull himself up.  
"There we go, easy-peasy Pit no all you have to-Oh Goddess the Mii fighter." Pit snapped his vision back towards the still falling boy.  
Sam, amidst the chaos of falling, was trying to undo his suitcase to get his sword or blaster since they both gave him better chances at moving through the air. But as he snapped the case open, his mind clearly dumbed down by fight-or-flight mentality, he was forced to watch all his clothes and items scatter amongst the air.  
"My stuff!" He called out, trying to reach for any of his weapons.  
But they were either too far or falling faster than him now. Panic washed over him once more, this was absolutely crazy. He hadn't even gotten to the manor and here he was about to die.  
"You can do it!" Pit called out, "Come on Sam you can do it!"  
Before Sam had even registered it, he was swinging his foot around in the air, then the next and then the next as he spun around like a cyclone against the force of gravity. While it didn't give him enough height to reach the ledge of the building, immediately filling the boy with a rush of horror, he felt the hands of the same angel who filled him with confidence wrap around his legs.  
"Here we go!" Pit growled, falling back with all the strength he could as he pulled the Mii onto the roof with him.  
The two boys lay there for moments, panting and sweating as the sudden escape from near death washed over them.  
"W-what...What the hell?" Sam questioned, not directed at Pit, but the situation.  
"Pretty much the every day." Pit chuckled amongst his pants.  
Sam didn't quite understand, and reflecting upon that he seemed to realise he hadn't quite understood whatever it was he had gotten himself into either, but all he could do was let out a chuckle too.

"I'm honestly surprised we made it through that." Pit said, walking down the staircase of the building they'd landed on, "Sorry about nearly killing you back there."  
"N-no it's fine!" Sam stuttered, any anger or confusion was gone and now the sudden realisation of who he was talking to had come back to him, "I-I'm sure it happens all the time."  
"More than we'd like to admit honestly." Pit laughed.  
That wasn't quite the answer Sam had wanted to receive.  
"Either way." The angel said, stopping and holding out his hand to the boy, "It was really impressive how you recovered back there...I'm Pit, it's nice to meet you, Sam."  
The Mii stared at the boy's hand for a moment as he felt his face go hot suddenly. A blush of complete and utter adoration was spreading across the mii's cheek which then turned into one of embarrassment as he realised it and timidly held out his hand to shake the angel's.  
"I-it's nice t-t-to meet you too!" He stuttered out, his voice somewhere between his normal one and a squeak.  
Pit couldn't help but laugh as he shook the boy's hand now and lightly punch him on the arm.  
"Come on lighten up man." He continued to chuckle before walking down the steps once again, "I'm guessing you're feeling a little star-struck right now, I get that. I was a newcomer once too, but honestly, things are better if you just act yourself."  
"T-they are?"  
"Yeah, of course, it's weird but we're all kind of like a family." Pit explained innocently, "I mean sure, some of us get along better than with others and some of us are total idiots or nuisances like Shulk, but we're all the same y'know?"  
"Uhmm...I think so?" Sam nervously laughed.  
The angel was a lot kinder than he expected, honestly so much nicer than he expected. It made him hope that everybody in the manor would be at least as welcoming at the angel was and made him even feel like he had gained a friend.  
"Oh...You're out of magic right?" Sam asked as they left the front of the building now, it had been a hotel luckily enough.  
"Yeah, that's right. It means I can't fly for a while outside of recovery-like bursts."  
"So how do we get to the manor?" Sam asked.  
"That's...Huh…" Pit replied, taking a moment to think, "Good call-ARGH! Ganon's gonna kill me! He's actually going to kill me for messing this up! I'll be sentenced to hades and-"  
"P-pit calm down!" Sam interrupted, grabbing the boy's arm, "C-covert right?"  
Pit looked around now as people were staring at them. Some in confusion but more in growing recognition.  
"Oh..Yeah." The angel sighed, "That's a hotel right?"  
"I think so." Sam answered as he looked at the name of the building.  
"Great, let's go!" Pit said with a smile, grabbing the boy's arm, "I have an idea!"

* * *

Before long the two had checked into a room on one of the lower floors. A perk to being a fighter Sam learnt is they never seem to have to pay for something either there or then, as Pit's bill would be charged to the manor and then deducted from either his pay or spendings, depending on the state of one or the other.  
"Are you sure this is fine?" Sam asked, "I feel bad making you have to pay for all this."  
"It's fine." Pit replied, scrolling through his phone now, "I'd much rather do this than deal with Ganon if news actually spreads or something like that."  
"Is...Is Ganondorf really that scary?" Sam asked.  
"He's terrifying." Pit replied with a cold stare and dead eyes, "Last time we were all together, Link and Marth had gotten into a stupid fight and he made them do a punishment battle. He beat them both at least twenty stocks until they couldn't stand anymore...And then they were on laundry duty for a week."  
Sam watched as the angel shuddered in horror over the memory, finding it amusing that the lord of darkness seemed something more of a rough dad like figure for the group. Although, he was still kind of scared to meet him based off Pit's reactions.  
"Oh, so what was your idea?" Sam asked, watching the angel sitting on the bed now.  
"I'm gonna call a favour in for us to get a lift." Pit replied with a smile before turning attention to the phone, "Hello? Ah hey, I wonder if you could give me a lift...I'm in the Hyrule hotel, first floor. We kinda need to keep it discreet-NO NOT FOR THOSE REASONS!" Pit yelled before sighing, "Fine fine, I have absolute faith in you, see you in a few, huh? What floor? Fifth, wh-.", The angel said before the call hung up and he turned, smiling at Sam, "I got us a good lift don't worry."  
"Who is it?" Sam asked, just more curious about which fighter he could eternally nerd out over next.  
"Only the most dependable idiot I know." Link said proudly, "Well at least he was last time I saw him...The time before that he was kinda serious but I think something happened...Either way, he's still an idiot I think. But a reliable one! Whenever things are quiet or too relaxing he's always there to make a mess of things, but when you trust him he always-"  
There was a huge flash of blue light behind the angel from the street below as the sound of a motorbike grew dangerously closer. Sam watched as the angel, whose face now seemed to default to one of blank disappointment, kept his back towards the shattering wall of windows as a horse-shaped bike smashed into the room with a cloud of smoke forming. Once the smoke had cleared thanks to a gust from Pit's wings, Sam was able to see the rider in sight. A boy, a little older than the two of them, with blonde messy hair, bright blue eyes and a shirt to match stared at them with a confident smile.  
"Heh, told you I'd be there in a few." He said.  
"Link!" Pit yelled back, "I told you to be discreet! What part of any of that was discreet?"  
"Well, I thought it was discreet for me." Link said simply with a blink before turning his attention to Sam, "Oh hey kid! You're that Mii fighter, how are ya?"  
Sam, who had somewhat recovered from the last bizarre scenario was now fully back into a mind broken mindset where he seemed to distance himself from the chaos surrounding him.  
"I'm good." He said robotically.  
"Eh? What's up with that?" Link laughed.  
"If I didn't know you so well I'd be shell-shocked too." Pit sighed, grabbing Sam and leading him towards the bike, "Come on let's just go."  
"Roger that!" Link said with a smirk, revving up the master cycle before the flew out the window.  
"Link...What's with all the fire around here?" Pit asked, looking at the carnage outside there hadn't been when he and Sam were there only ten minutes earlier.  
"Well-hang on and brace!" Link yelled back as the bike hit the floor and soon the trio were driving down the Smashville roads, "Well, I couldn't just drive a bike up to the third floor now, could I? So I used a bomb to launch me and the bike up to you too."  
"A bomb?" Pit asked, shocked by even this, "You used a bomb in public?"  
"Of course, pretty smart right?" Link asked with a cocky chuckle, "I'd like to think I've gotten even more brilliant since the last time we all met."  
"Wow...You really have changed Link." Pit said.  
"I have?"  
"Yeah, you're even stupider." The angel said matter-of-factly.  
"Eh?" The hero questioned.  
"Watch out for the bus!" Sam screamed out.

* * *

After what could only be described as the most harrowing drive of his life, Sam, with shaking legs, stumbled off the back of Link's bike and collapsed to his knees against the grass. Not caring for the notion of traffic, red lights or local law enforcement, Link had managed to drive the two boys through the city and got them out to a remote field where he'd told them he was expecting to meet with Zelda and get teleported back to the castle with them.  
"I guess that was a little rough for you, eh kid?" Link laughed, kneeling down and petting the boy's back, "But relax, stick with me and stuff like that'll be nothing!"  
"If anything I feel like you're scaring him off." Pit cut in.  
"Ehhh? Pit come on, I haven't seen you in years and you're being this mean to me now all of a sudden?" Link asked with crocodile tears down his cheeks.  
"H-hey come on man cut that out!" The angel yelled, "Y-you know I feel bad when someone cries."  
Link smirked and dived towards the angel, furiously rubbing his knuckles against the soft brunette mess of hair.  
"And that's why I love ya!" He grinned and giggled.  
"Link k-knock it off! That hurts!" Pit growled while trying to struggle against the boy.  
Link wasn't quite what Sam had expected. While he did remember the boy a few years back being on headlines for various sorts of troubles and even in his fights he did a lot of silly and goofy things, he always just thought it was part of the showmanship or he was acting. Thinking of that did, however, raise a new interest point for him.  
"Um, Mr Link s-sir?" Sam stuttered.  
"Just call me Link kiddo." Link answered quickly, looking at the boy while still tormenting Pit, "Then again, you look like your Pit's age, what's your name?"  
"S-Sam."  
"Well just call me Link then Sam, everyone else does." He said with a welcoming smile as wide as the sun, "So what's up?"  
"It's just...You look really different from when you were at 'Smash On!' a couple of years back."  
"Oh yeah, Nintendo just wanted me to look like me from Breath of The Wild, for like marketing reasons and stuff...Although the stuff I get to keep from it is more exciting than the look."  
"How...How does that work?" Sam asked, curious about ways Nintendo was able to change the physical being of these people.  
"It's simple." A female voice came from behind.  
The trio of boys looked over in the direction as a girl with elf-like ears, wearing a pink and white dress with flowing strawberry blonde hair walked towards them during her lecture.  
"Think of it as a wish at first. Through game design, through the making of a world and universe, the hopes and wishes of the makers bring us to life outside of the world they create. So when Miyamoto wanted to make Mario, imagine the pixelated being formed in the real world and then, when testing and designing the game, the Mario being could enter the digital world and perform in it like an actor. Then, when the creator wishes for him to look different, he does. It's simple really. Although, personalities aren't the same which is where it grows trickier." The girl said, standing next to Sam now and holding her hand out with a warm smile, "Zelda, it's nice to meet you."  
"U-um...I'm Sam, nice to meet you too." The boy said nervously before the girl continued to talk.  
"For example, sticking with Mario, his personality in the games is different to those out of the games. Like two separate load states. But in my case, my personality out of the games is a mix of my own and is shaped differently with each new personality in each new game." She explained pointing to herself and then Link,"And as for my wonderful boyfriend over there, every time he jumps out a new game he has a new personality either matching the game or completely different to his last one. But…" She said happily, walking over and kissing his cheek, "He's the kept the same one twice now and I still love him very much."  
"Heh, it's good to see you too baby." Link smiled and blushed a little, "You look great!"  
"Oh, this?" Zelda asked, regarding her appearance, "Well Nintendo wanted me to look a little different too I guess, but I'm glad you like it."  
Sam watched as the girl smiled and energetically ran off to wave and give the angel and welcoming hug back.  
"I wasn't expecting to see you or the Mii newcomer here." Zelda said to the angel, "What's that about?"  
"Ah well, I volunteered to meet him and kinda ran out of magic."  
"Oh Pit, you think you would've learned about that after the pineapple incident." Zelda scolded, her tone motherly and caring, "Come on, let's get you boys home then."  
She smiled and waved for Sam to come closer until the three boys were around her. The princess then closed her eyes and begun to spin, a blue light enveloping everyone as soon there was a flash and they were gone.

* * *

 **Sorry about all the exposition! Kinda wanna dump it here since it'd just be a headache in later chapters and I'd rather put them towards improving ant writing characters! Pretty much as I post this I'm already writing part 2! But I felt like for a first chapter, especially in a story like this, it was long enough as it is without being too boring or distracting! That said, allow me to explain some things!**

 **This is an AU retelling of a story I once told called 'Smash On!' which is still on this site I believe! I just don't remember the account details anymore. With Smash Ultimate coming, I wanted to revisit the world and characters I made but I never exactly concluded 'Smash On!' and felt bad if I were to go back and try to add to it now. So I thought, why not do an AU where instead of Smash 4, the Mii Fighter joins in at Ultimate? As well as that, writing weekly again is something I want to do and improve at! So while this chapter 1, I think, is better than 'Smash On!' chapter 1, I don't think it's as good as some of the later chapters. And while this will be an AU retelling, the story will be new. There may be some recycled ideas, but told anew and the overall new plot will be different too! But until I think of it and weave it in, you'll have to enjoy some slice of life stuff with the characters! So please wait for part 2 to drop next Friday, and welcome to the story!**


	2. Chapter 2-An Exciting Welcome Pt2

**For the purposes of imagery, please imagine the Mii fighter to look model wise the same way as the anime-esque models of the FE/Kid Icarus look. Of course, all characters belong to Nintendo and their respective companies. This is an AU telling of another fanfiction called 'Smash On!, if you'd like to see more of these characters check there, or wait till next Friday!**

 **-Also, please like/favourite this story if you want to see when it updates, and always feel free to leave reviews! Getting better or being told what people like/don't like will make later chapters better and I really appreciate it!**

* * *

Before realising it, Sam and the other three were in a large, spacious hallway. The floor itself was wooden, topped with long stretches of red matches with yellow symbols and illustrations for decorations. Going down the hallway, there were various open doors which lead to who knows where and at the very end, a set of double stairs which lead up towards another corridor which split into two and then, many more.  
"Home sweet home. Please remember to tip your driver adequately, leave a 5-star review and for future rides, always remember to book with air Zelda." The princess spoke, imitating the distorted voice of a plane tannoy perfectly.  
"Oh, I'll give you plenty of tips my princess." Link said with a smirk, pulling the girl by the waist and nuzzling into her neck.  
The girl snorted, laughing while trying to push her goof of a boyfriend off her while the other two boys started to shuffle away. The angel and the Mii were midway down the hall, the latter engrossed within all the photos and paintings cluttered along the wall. Various art works from games and family photos, in terms of 'Smash On' residents, were spread all over the place.  
"It used to be shorter." Pit said, smiling as he noticed Sam's wonder with the hallway, "Back when I joined for...I believe Nintendo called that game Brawl...Well, back when I joined the hallway was half the length of this!"  
"No way." The mii gasped, smiling widely, "That's...So it's really true then, it changes shape and size and...and...And this is the Smash Manor."  
Thinking about it from the bus and now standing here, it was two completely different things altogether. Like night and day, sun and moon, black and white, ruby and-no, that doesn't exactly work. Regardless, he wasn't going to let game naming conventions get in the way of the sheer feeling of awe he had while looking around him.  
"Geez, you must be some kind of nerd or something huh?" Pit laughed, poking his new companion's shoulder, "It's just a house dude."  
"Yeah but-" Sam said before blushing, "It's _the_ house, like...I don't even know where to start."  
"I think the cafeteria is a good place." Pit said in thought, "It's usually where most people gather, since we're always hungry. Some more than others..Oh, I could also show you the gym or-"

"Yes, I'm sure there are many places we could show our newcomer guest." A loud, deep voice boomed from atop the stairs.  
Sam watched as the angel's wings seemed to droop like a cat's tail, his face cold with blizzard. He looked behind him, Zelda was gone and Link was attempting to put himself in stasis to momentum blast himself anywhere he could. Before the fighter could turn back to see the origin of the voice he felt a large, green hand on his shoulder. He looked up and staring back at him was Ganondorf, the alleged manager and caretaker of the Smash Manor and its residents.  
"And a fine welcome to you Sam." He said with a smile, and even though it was friendly it looked frighteningly unnatural, "I'm sure you know this but I'm Ganondorf and if you have any questions or need for the time being, please come to either myself or Samus when you meet her. Did Pit get you here okay?"  
Sam's eyes flickered to the angel's, whose eyes were going up and down faster than a world-record yo-yo performance.  
"Yeah!" Sam answered nervously, "Couldn't have been better, it was totally easy."  
"Good." Ganon said with a smile, his attention now turned to the hero, "Ah, Link my boy. You stay where you are, don't think I can't see you sneak away."  
"Y-yo old man Ganon, h-how's it shaking dog, t-this introduction is t-totally whack awesome so I'll leave you to it." Link stuttered.  
' _Did...Is he so scared he's reverted to the 90s Link?_ ', Sam thought, growing even more confused by the second. Pit had earlier compared the man to a dad-like figure and in the past when Sam had seen him during press events he always seemed so calm and collected.  
"Come on now boy." Ganon said with the same smile as he approached Link, "I know it's been a while since we last saw each-other but you don't need to act so stupid."  
"Stupidly formal?" Link asked.  
"No. Just stupid. Especially considering you've been stupid enough today." The red-headed man said, a hand now on Link's shoulder.  
Suddenly, the whole atmosphere had taken a dramatic turn. Sam wasn't the best fighter, not compared to anyone in the manor at least, but he had gained a fighter's instinct in his life. And now, when the Gerudo man's hand lay on Link's shoulder, every single instinct was screaming for him to run away or just die there and then. Within a flash, the young hero was slammed into the wall to the left, cracks running along the surface as Ganon turned around from his toss with yellow, predatorial eyes locked on Pit now.  
"Oh no, Ganon w-wait please c-come on I can-." The young angel begged before being met with a palm strike to the face.  
Sam was with the understanding, from matches he'd seen, that the warlock was a slow but powerful man. The power was there for sure, as Pit was sent flying back against the stair railings and bounced off that to the ceiling before landing atop the stairs, electricity visibly running over his body. But this speed, Link was stuck in the wall and Pit immobilized in a mere instant, it almost didn't make sense. The tall man stood up now and shook his hands.  
"So Link, care to explain to me why you set a bomb off in the middle of a densely populated area?" Ganon asked, his voice was so imposingly deep.  
"I…" The groaning hero began to say, sitting up in the wall hole now, "I wanted to make a sick entrance."  
And Sam watched again as the man seemed to blink in front of Link, grab him by the leg and toss him into the opposing wall with similar results, all in a single instant.  
"And Pit, why was it you decided to check into the same hotel that this idiot decided to blow a bomb up in front of?"  
"Well, I was trying to be covert." The angel whined as he pulled himself up, "R-really Ganon I was. I ran out of magic when picking Sam up, so I figured we'd hit the hotel to keep hidden and then I called Link to pick us up!"  
"I asked you to be covert, not idiotic." Ganon sighed, rubbing his eyes with forefinger and thumb, "I wouldn't be angry if you had called me, but calling the boy back there is always asking for trouble no matter the situation."

"I resent that." Link coughed up, some drywall coming out with his words too.  
"I will launch you into the Goddess-damn ceiling Link." Ganon growled before turning back to Pit, "You're lucky that the laws and people here a little looser than they would be elsewhere, or you'd all be in jail for very serious crimes. Your status doesn't make you untouchable and this city isn't your playground." The man continued before turning to Sam, "Now, I'll leave you in Pit's care. He's usually very good at avoiding this kind of trouble, but we all make mistakes so don't worry about making your own. Just try to avoid making any though. At all. Now if you boys excuse me I have some unwanted paperwork to go through to clean after _your_ mess."  
And just like that the man walked up the stairs, around the corner and was gone. Sam felt another hand on his shoulder, now facing the Hylian boy with half his face bloodied and the rest covered in drywall dust but somehow looking victorious.  
"We sure showed him." He laughed.  
"I don't see how." Sam quickly answered back.  
"We got away without much punishment really." Link laughed again.  
"Are...Are you okay?" Sam questioned the older boy.  
"I'm great!"  
As Link held his arm and thumb up it made a series of horrible cracking noises, rivalled only by the muffled internal scream trapped within the hero's mouth. Sam looked at the angel now.  
"Pit, you good?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine." The boy replied, ruffling his wings to shake off the shock, "Honestly we really did get off there easy heheh."  
"I never want to get in trouble." The Mii fighter said rigidly.  
"Relax, stick with me Sam and you never will!" Link said enthusiastically, one arm around the younger boy's neck.  
And it was at this moment, that every thought about Smash and the other residents he would had would be burned within his mind, ready to start anew.

* * *

Link had parted from the boys, in desperate need of a shower and some relief he'd gone to find Zelda and said he'd catch up with them later. In the meantime, Pit was showing Sam around the strange mansion. From what he could comprehend, the space within the mansion was both infinite and procedurally generated. A sort of defense mechanism against invaders or desperate press to keep them stuck in a loop. To the residents however, it worked very differently. As soon as they wished to go somewhere, the mansion would accomodate and warp the space seamlessly to take them a corner or two away from where they needed to go and implant a sort of mental map for them to follow. It was a lot to follow and difficult to understand, but not at all to accept. If not from just being open-minded, from just seeing it all. The pools, aquarium, pokemon stadium, combat stadium, gyms, bedrooms, halls and sports courts were all just too large and varied to ever fit in any building. Yet, whether it was science or magic, it was actually real and he was involved with all of it.  
"This is really amazing." Sam said out loud as they walked away from one of the sparring arenas.  
"Yeah, it certainly took me a while to get used to it too." Pit laughed, "But it's easy enough to navigate once you get a hang of it."  
"Will I?"  
"We all do." Pit said with a confident nod, "Still, we haven't checked out one of the common spaces yet."  
"Common spaces?" Sam asked with a tilt of his head.  
"Yeah!" Pit began to explain, "We're not machines, we can't just fight or like fighting all the time. So as well as all the other places we have spaces where we can just relax and chill! They're really cool because we also get a hold of all the games we star in before anyone else does which is great, we actually have some copies of Ultimate around the place."  
"Oh, that's great! Am I able to borrow one for my-." Sam was saying before looking around him, "My switch...Which was with my things...When we fell."  
"Oh...Yeah." Pit said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "I'm uh, I'm sorry about that really b-but hey I'm sure if you talk to Ganon he can get you a replacement for all sorts of things!"  
"It's kinda more than that…" Sam said solemnly, "My sword, blaster and fighter costumes were in there too...Without them, I can't really fight."  
"Huh? Don't Miis practice like, hand to hand combat too?" Pit asked.  
"Well yeah it's just that...I'm really no good at it." Sam admitted, blushing over the embarrassment of admitting that to the other fighter.  
"Aw man, now I feel even worse." Pit sighed, "Well, I don't think you'll have a match today hopefully...And maybe we can get you some replacement gear before then, or at least train you up a little!"  
"I don't think you understand how bad I am."  
"Nonsense!" Pit said, giving his friend a supportive pat, "I saw you do that crazy cyclone kick earlier, that's something right?"  
"W-well yeah but...That's pretty much all I can do without a sword or blaster." Sam continued, "I did really well in the sword and gunner trials Nintendo ran, but I came 3rd in the brawler trial. B-but barely third! I-I just couldn't pull off any special moves is all."  
"Honestly don't overthink it too much." The angel said reassuringly, "I'm sure you'll be able to find all kinds of teaching here."

The two boys walked into a brightly lit area now. The room itself was around the same size as a standard american suburban home with windows giving them a view of the outside which didn't quite make sense, but Sam accepted it as more of the house's mysterious ways. Towards the back of the room, there was a large kitchen space with tables and chairs, benches and ledges for people to commune and chat. And closer to them was a large collection of couches and bean bags, TVs and Nintendo consoles. The boy could hear the clicking of controllers as the walked further in, so Pit took a little flight over to the nearest couch and sat on top of it, looking down at the origin of the sounds.  
"Oh hey Ike, Marth." The angel said in a friendly fashion.  
Sam turned the corner to see two of the most famous swordsmen in the history of 'Smash On!'. The legendary hero king himself and the fearless mercenary, who looked more like he did in Brawl than he did Smash 4. The two didn't answer immediately, or at all for moments as their eyes were locked onto the screen. Sam turned to see what they were so intently playing and was somewhat surprised to see them fiercely competing at Mario Kart.  
"Argh!" Marth growled, throwing the gamecube controller to the floor, "That's not fair Ike and you know it! This is bullshit!"  
"Heh, take it easy man." Ike laughed, "It's not my fault you got blue-shelled last minute."  
"Oh, okay, so it's not your fault when you throw the blue-shell at me and then say 'oh hey man look a blue-shell', is it?" The prince raged.  
"Nah." Ike said with a smug smile, "Game's RNG."  
"I hate you." Marth said, leaning down and picking up the controller again, "Bad enough you play with two loose joycons, now I have to fucking-."  
"Language." Ike teased.  
"Uhm, guys?" Pit asked with a nervous laugh.  
The dark-blue haired boy looked away from the screen while his angry friend muttered and debated what course to go to next. He gave a friendly smile to them both and waved.  
"Oh sup Pit, how's it-dude say hello." Ike said, giving Marth a nudge who simply grumbled and waved in the angel's direction, "How's it going anyway, you just get here?"  
"Pretty much." Pit answered, sliding down the back of the tall couch and onto the cushion now, "Lady Palutena got here a little earlier too, I set out a while ago to, oh yeah, this is Sam." The angel said while gesturing to the boy, "The Mii fighter."  
"Hey." Ike said kindly, giving the boy a smile before turning his focus back to the screen once he heard the little chime.  
"Hey." Sam replied nervously with a little wave.  
"Don't mind these two." Pit whispered, "Ike's kind but Marth can be kinda grumpy most of them time, but they're cool."  
"I'm focused." Marth spoke suddenly, "Not deaf. When we eventually get matched up Pit I will humiliate you as much as possible."  
"Ha! I'd like to see you try." Pit laughed, sticking his tongue out at the prince who simply growled and kept at the game.  
"Oh hey, you two made it here too today." Zelda said happily as she walked in with her bandaged up boyfriend.  
"Who's winning?" Link asked, smirking and staring at Marth as he did.  
"You'll reincarnate sooner than you want if you keep at it Link." The prince threatened.  
"I am." Ike said cooly.  
"Can I jump in next game?" Zelda asked.  
"Sure thing." Ike said with a smile.  
"You gonna sit down Sam?" Link asked as he walked by, falling atop a green bean bag and claiming it for himself.  
Sam awkwardly followed suit and sat himself on a chair close to Pit and looked around at the random group of fighters who were a lot more casual than he'd ever have thought.  
"Would you like to play too Sam?" Zelda asked, smiling and offering him a controller, "I gotta warn you though, I'm the best one here at this."  
"Lies and slander." The prince chimed in.  
"fourth place." Ike spoke up.  
"Shut up!" Marth growled, slapping his friend's leg.  
"Uh sure." Same smiled awkwardly as he took the controller off the girl, waiting for the two boys to finish their last race of the set.  
The following happened moments later.

"What the fuck is this bullshit?" Zelda screamed, smashing her controller into the couch in a furious rage which made Sam jump back a little.  
"Fuck this. Fuck all this, it's rigged. The game's completely rigged!" Marth added to the fury.  
"Wow." Ike sighed, sitting back from the hardcore gamer position he had taken midway through the last set of races, "Seriously...How can someone be actually good at this game?"  
"I um, I had a lot of free time." Sam laughed nervously.  
"That was sweet!" Pit said, shaking the boy by the shoulders, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone beat Zelda before."  
"I have." Link chimed in with a smile.  
"Pausing the game while you're in first and turning the game off doesn't count Link." The princess laughed, flicking the boy's head lightly.  
"It totally does." Link pouted, "It's Schrodinger's kart, you see…"  
As Link began to explain his stupid theory he wasn't able to hear the sound of the boots approaching or the low, monotone voice which said.  
"Robi~n chop." Which came with the appearance of a silver haired boy who smacked the spine of a purple book on Link's head.  
"Argh! The hell?" Link grumbled, rubbing his head before scowling up, "You wanna go already loser?"  
"Ew, why's there blood on my book?" The silver haired tactician, Robin, asked before looking back to the hero, "What did you to do annoy Ganon already, you haven't even been back a day?"  
"I set off a bomb in town." Link replied quickly.  
The boy simply stared at him for a while, not sure whether to be disappointed or amazed at this point. He decided to go with both and look around, smiling and waving.  
"Hey everyone." He said calmly.  
"Hey Robin." Everyone pretty much said one after the other, apart from Sam who said hello in a polite manner.  
"Hm? Are you new or staff?" Robin asked the Mii.  
"I-I'm a Mii fighter." Sam replied.  
"Oh cool, welcome I guess." Robin said with a smirk, pointing down to Link, "If you wanna do well here you'd best stay away from this idiot, he'll only drag you down."  
"Eh?" Link said, standing up and uppercutting the boy, "You wanna go huh? You wanna go bird-brain?"  
The mage simply rubbed his jaw before swinging back at him and before long the two were rolling around on the floor in a frenzy to hit the other.  
"They're always like that too." Pit said to Sam, "Ever since they met last time, they've been best friends but pretty much rivals at the same time."  
"Ah, right." Sam noted before picking to race at dragon-driftway, much to every other player's audible suffering.

It was then that a series of notifications went off on everyone's phones, even Sam's too which was surprising. The message had read that everyone was to make their way towards a viewing platform as the opening ceremonies would begin shortly.  
"Saved by the bell I guess." Ike huffed as he stood up and stretched.  
"Nah, I would've gotten him this time for sure." Zelda said determinedly, "You hear me Sam?"  
"S-sure." The Mii fighter nodded nervously.  
"You're dead." Marth whispered coldly as he strolled past the boy.  
"Alright, alright." Pit laughed as he started pushing his frozen companion in the direction of everyone else, "Let's not scare him too much, eh?"

"Oh yeah, where's Lucina and Robina?" Link asked Robin.  
"Oh, Lucina said she had something family related to deal with and Robina went to give her support." Robin answered with a shrug, "I haven't got a clue."  
"Oooo~." Link hummed with a smirk, "Maybe Chrom figured out you have a crush on her and she's trying to stop him from killing you. Ooooo~."  
"...Are you five?" Robin asked, holding back a blush.  
"No I'm like...Huh what number am I into reincarnates now?" Link questioned himself.  
"Whatever it is, it's less wins than you have over me." Robin chuckled smugly, following after the crowd of teens.  
"Oh yeah, I'll fix that soon, you hear me?" Link argued as he stormed after his rival.

* * *

The space the group of adolescents lead inside was something Sam never expected, even from the reality defying building already. What seemed to go on for an infinite space, endless stars and galaxies, yet somehow it also looked like they were falling through it too.  
"Hey Pit, what's with this place?" Sam asked.  
"Hm? Oh, this is just the stage morph space." Pit said.  
Sam was about to say something but Zelda decided to chime in now before the boy could ask.  
"It's a new feature we're implementing into 'Smash On!', where the stage of a battle can transform into another." She explained, "It also makes for quick and easy travel into the fighter's box down at the stadium below we found, rather than have to take Samus' ship to fly us down there all the time."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." The Mii boy hummed.  
"Yeah, it's just the simple bending and manipulation of spatial overlapping to result in teleportation." Zelda giggled, "Easy."  
"You're a lot more studious than when I last saw you." Robin commented.  
"Ah, I guess that must be the 'Breath of the Wild' in me." The princess laughed before going down the stairs of the seating box.  
All around him Sam saw so many familiar faces, legendary fighters from across Smash including Ganon, Samus, Mario, Snake, Villager and so many more. There were noticeable newcomers like himself, such as the heel pokemon Incineroar and the two Belmonts. If Sam wasn't so nervous about the dark space and curious about the events to take place he would've been nerding out over everything to the angel guide. The group he'd found himself with seemed to have something of their own set of seats just for them near the front row, with the addition of one more now which seemed to make place for the Mii. Though to their surprise, there were already two seats occupied. One to a blue-haired girl with her head in her hands and the other to a twin-tailed girl who looked like Robin.  
"Yo, Lucina, Robina~." Link called happily while the rest of the group took their seats.  
"Oh hey Link, I like the look." Robina, the female Robin, said while giving him a thumbs up.  
"Thanks!" The hero replied with a wide smile, "I'm pretty handsome aren't I?"  
"Pfft." Robin jeered as he stepped past the boy blocking the row.  
As Link began to fight with the mage, Sam had somehow found a seat in-between the blue-haired girl and Pit along the front row. Just behind him was Link, Zelda, Robin and Marth, as they were all around the middle of their row.  
"New face?" The twin-tailed girl hummed.  
"Oh this is Sam." Pit said, introducing the boy who didn't know he was being addressed.  
"Hello." The Mii said with a polite nodd.  
"Pft, what was that?" Robina laughed being going stone-faced, "Hello." She then began to laugh while tapping her friend's shoulder, "Hey Lucina, hey come on and say 'Hello', Lucina~."  
The Mii fighter blushed a little over the taunting, not sure whether he was being teased, insulted or both. He shot a look of confusion at Pit whose smile simply seemed to say, 'that's just how she is'. Finally Sam felt another hand tap his shoulders and when he turned the blue-haired girl had extended a hand for him to shake.  
"Greetings." She spoke formally, "You're the Mii fighter, correct?"  
"Y-yes." The boy stuttered as he shook her hand.  
"Welcome to our home, please do ignore my friend here." She continued with a warm smile, "She likes to tease and joke around, unfortunately."  
"Hey don't be mean!" The girl next to her whined before looking towards Sam, "I'm Robin, but just add an 'a' like with Lucina."  
' _Ah, that's why_ ', Sam thought. Once Lucina had given her greeting she returned her head into her palms with a sigh while Robina began to giggle and clutch her sides. From just behind her Robin, with a look of concern leaned forward.  
"Lucina, is something wrong?" He asked.  
"Oh no, no~." Robina was nearly crying of laughter, "Just wait and see, wait and see. It's too damn funny Robin."  
"I'm immediately more concerned than interested if you're so happy about it." The tactician replied bluntly.  
Suddenly, the seats they sat on and the viewing platform began to glow a strange mix of white, but also rainbow like colours as the space around them seemed to fall more rapidly. Sam clutched at his seat while Pit seemed to chuckle at the boy's nervousness. When Sam finally opened his eyes, he almost couldn't believe it. The stadium which he had seen before was all around him now. Rows and rows of thousands of people all gathered layers high. They seemed to be at the very bottom of the stadium, but still overlooking a blank arena which had above it a series of floating holographic spheres acting like monitors to let those on the higher rows see what was happening out of their sight. It was like no matter where you sat, you always had a front row seat.  
"Oh wow, holo-spheres." The boy cooed in awe.  
"That's nothing, even that stage is holographic." Pit explained, pointing towards the blank stage.  
"It is?" Sam asked.  
"Yeah, I mean with all the crazy places we fight on it's not like we can squeeze them into the stadium. So we just use holograms to display the fight for those on the luxurious ground floor-ah, see!"  
Sam watched as the plain looking stage began to glitch like a digital image before it took the shape of Ultimate's Battlefield. Seeing the stage in 3D was somewhat confusing, it was a lot wider like people would expect from an area, but not like a platform fighter. And the platforms were different too. The two shorter ones hung to the left of the stage, while the top one hovered on the right.  
"So, whoever's fighting today is off somewhere else, wherever battlefield is and we're basically just seeing it as if it was live in front of us?" Sam questioned.  
"Yep!" The angel replied.  
"Then...How do blast-zones work?" He asked, much to the angel's distress.  
"It's about spatial manipulation again." Zelda added from behind the angel, "The stage is in its own space, but when we fight on it there will be a closed dimensional barrier around it see." She said, trying to illustrate with her fingers, "When a fighter hits this barrier, it makes the K.O effect while the fighter ends up a sub-space where they sit on a platform and either wind up back at the house, or dropped off back at the stage."  
"We only ever use more than one stock rarely." Link commented, "Since we're not playable characters in reality, the fights go on a lot longer and are a lot more entertaining. So having more than one stock is just tiring, but can be done on occasion."  
Sam nodded as he listened to the various fighter's explanations, enthralled by learning the behind-the-scenes details of his new work. The stadium suddenly erupted into thunderous applause as the announcer began to talk and hype up the crowd.  
"Oh yeah, who's fighting today?" Ike asked, looking towards the rest of the group from the end of the row of seats.  
"I'm not sure." Palutena answered from the other end.  
"We know~." Robina giggled.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, are you ready?" The announcer's deep voice boomed across the stadium, "To smash?"  
In response the crowd cheered and whistled, all sounds of excitement and joy that were possible from the different races up and down the space were made. Sam couldn't help but smile as he saw it, seeing this live and feeling the energy of the crowd sent shivers throughout him.  
"That's what we like to hear!" The announcer continued, "Ladies and Gentlemen we have a very special fight for you today now that our fighters are returning here, we're going to have a battle of the newcomers!"  
The word made Sam's heart drop. He knew he was in the audience but he'd already been transported through space and wouldn't put it past the hosts to pull a quick switch and send him in the arena from where het sat.  
"Please, turn your attention to the stage as we welcome our first newcomer!"  
On the battlefield in front of the fighter's eyes they watched as a missile of orange ink seemed to burst onto the stage, leaving the orange ooze where it landed before it took shape. Rising from the orange ink was a small girl, equipped with a an odd-looking water gun which she proceeded to pump in the air excitedly while making a strange high-pitched gargle.  
"We have inkling girl!"! The announcer cheered, as did the stadium, "And in the other corner…"  
The attention of the watches all went to the opposite side of battlefield now, where a rune of light began to form on the ground and a white, humanoid shape began to rise. Lucina couldn't watch as the white light burst off the fighter revealing the man, standing in victorious glory.  
"Chrom!" The announcer finished.  
"Hello everyone!" Chrom would shout and wave, hoping that whatever captured the fight also captured audio, "I'm here today to finally get my chance, and I will win today in the name of my darling baby girl Lucina!"  
The blue-haired girl screamed into her hands, a mix of shame of frustration while all the adolescents around her seemed echo a series of oofs and yikes. Those who could reach her all gave her supportive pats.  
"Why?" She questioned now, looking to her hands for answers, "I begged him to drop out last minute, I even asked Robina for support but he just wouldn't stop."  
"He's always been that way." Robin sighed, looking at the stage with dread.  
"There's nothing you can do but accept it and hope he does our franchise justice." Marth added, leaning back in his seat with judgemental eyes, "If he doesn't, I'll come for him myself."  
"Hey, easy man." Ike tried to soften the prince's words.  
The buzz of the announcer's mic started to echo again as he began to countdown from three, two, one and shouted begin.

Thousands and thousands of miles away, wherever 'Battlefield' was, the two fighters took their stances, readying sword and gun for the fight.  
"I don't really want to fight a kid." Chrom called across to the squid-girl, "So I'll hold back a little for you, sound good?" He continued, giving her a friendly but cocky smile.  
The little being simply pouted and growled back at him, as she raised her gun and started firing off burst-fire jets of the orange ink at him. Paying them little attention, the man ran forward and jumped to the left platform and then off that and right to the top platform.  
"Get ready!" He yelled out as he leapt forwards, falling towards the Inkling with his sword swinging down.  
She rolled out the way, barely dodging the powerful swing by an instant but Chrom wouldn't let her get away that easy. While commenting on her apt speed, he advanced with a series of strikes from the red dancing blade technique. The Inkling was deft however, turning into her squid-form to fall through, and around, strikes from the blade while jumping over and moving away from other strikes.  
"Chrom goes on a fierce assault straight from the start!" The announcer began to commentate, "But Inkling-girl makes excellent use of her small stature, speed and agility to dodge around each attack with just as much ease!"  
Once the technique had stopped, Chrom tried to pull away but the girl was too quick for him. She dashed forward, turning into a squid to add to her speed, dived into a splosh of pain and as she dived out of it, thrust her legs forward mid-transformation, and hit him square in the chest with a hard jumping kick. The crowd cheered as the first strike had been made in the Inkling's favour, but she wasn't done just yet. Using her insane speed and odd squid movement she raced behind Chrom while he flew in the air, going below him and jumping up as she swung her gun around and hit him square on the back, sending him no towards centre-stage.  
"Nice back-air!" The announcer roared.  
The blue-haired man managed to twirl around in the air, slamming his palm onto the ground to get a hold of the floor and roll into recovery, looking towards his opponent now.  
"Hey you're pretty good ac-" He was about to address the girl when he came face to face with a flashing orange triangle coming at him.  
Acting quickly, the fighter took a defensive stance with his blade as the triangle-bomb burst out in an explosion of orange paint, but Chrom smirked in the face of the explosion. Timing the counter perfectly, he swung his sword through the ink and the force of the slash caused the ink to move around him and leave him unscathed. His eyes darted left and right, trying to spot where the Inkling was when he heard the war-gargle from above. The girl reached behind her back with her gun as she fell towards him and the swung her arms forward, her gun had now morphed into a giant paint roller which slammed down on the swordsman's head.  
"Grnh!" Chrom groaned as his legs buckled and got grounded in the stage.  
The Inkling girl simply seemed to continue to move forward with her strange attack, painting Chrom's back in orange paint and some of the ground before turning around to face the stuck opponent. She lashed out twice with her gun now, trapping Chrom in a swift flurry of blows before unloading a burst-fire spread of paint up and down him. Finally, after racking up some heavy damage he was blasted back across the stage, dripping head to toe with the orange liquid.  
"That's not good." Sam commentated to the group around him.  
"Of course it's not, he took a lot of hits there." Pit added.  
"No, he's covered in paint." Sam corrected the angel.  
"And that'll be a pain to wash out?" Link cut in.  
"No no!" Sam corrected him now, "When Inkling covers someone in paint their attacks do more damage."  
"What?" Lucina asked, looking at the boy now, "How do you know that?"  
"Well, I've been keeping up with fighter knowledge for all of you, especially the newcomers and it's not hard to look up...Do you...Do you all not check information about newcomers?" Sam asked, a little bewildered by the all the sudden eyes avoiding him in embarrassment now.  
Lucina stood forward, slamming her hands on the railing in front of her.  
"Dad come on, be defensive now!" She yelled out in vain.

Chrom had managed to angle himself to the left as she fired at him, making his knockback launch him towards the left platforms where he looked down at her now. He watched as she threw another bomb towards the ground, trapping him on the platform where she began to fire a stream of paint. He held up his block, managing to save himself from the damage of the paint while the girl had quickly homed in with another jumping kick. Chrom was ready this time however. He leant back, just barely dodging the girl's small feet as he grabbed her by the neck of her shirt and pulled her down into a swift knee against her stomach. The girl let out a cry of pain as she was winded from the attack, but Chrom was too focused on what to do next as he threw her up into the air. He readied his blade and threw it up, hitting the air-borne girl as he leapt after them.  
"Aether!" He yelled out, slamming himself and the Inkling down towards the ground and making her fly to the opposite side of the stage.  
"What a fierce comeback, what excellent stage control!" The announcer hyped up Chrom's trade of blows, "Can he keep up this successful attack pressure?"  
Trying to do just that, Chrom dropped from the platforms and ran across the stage, leaping up while spinning to try and hit the girl with two slashes of the his sword. The Inkling managed to get a grip of herself in the air and, turning into a squid, thrust herself back as she dodged towards the stage ground. Her descent was much slower and predictable this time, so Chrom quickened his fall and dashed to where she'd be landing. He came forward with another series of dancing blades, and the Inkling just barely managed to make her way through them with skillful dodges. She wasn't ready though for the flurry of multiple sword jabs coming at her legs which sent the girl flying off stage now.  
"You were too predictable." He began to monologue as the girl was off-stage, "An experienced fighter like myself could read that attack from a mile away, I'm sorry, but it's over now!"  
Chrom dashed forwards and leapt off the stage after the girl, trying to swing his sword in a downwards-arc but missing her while the Inkling propelled herself towards the stage ledge and recovered successfully.  
"Damn." The fighter cursed as he spun around and threw his sword up after her.  
Even though it didn't hit her, he was luckily in the range to follow up with aether and get back to the stage once more. Though, as he climbed the ledge he was face to face with another bomb left behind by the girl. ' _That won't work twice, like I said, I can read you!_ ', he thought, blocking the attack this time and not noticing the little hand grabbing at his torso. Before he could register it, he had been hit and tossed towards the other end of the stage now.  
"She's clever." Robin narrated, "Using her bombs not as attacks but for cover as to her next actions. Chrom can't attack or the bomb will hit him, and if he defends she can simply grab him."  
"Can't he do anything about it?" Pit asked.  
"Well…" Robin began while trying to think, "There's time before the bomb goes off where he could run at her, jump or way or any other movement he can manage to think of, but it's just as risky as blocking really if she can read it."  
"And she's pretty good at that." Link sighed, "Geez, she only has one projectile and she uses it better than I do."  
"Maybe that's because she thinks about her attacks." Zelda giggled.  
"Zelda!" The boy whined, latching onto his girlfriend and shaking her.

Chrom was starting to face more and more pressure as the battle went on. The girl had shown time and time again that she was extremely good at reading his attacks, her kit pretty much required her to. Even when Chrom went on the offensive and landed an aerial or successful dancing blade, it wasn't enough comparatively to the damage she was landing on him. Luckily, the even though he was off-stage more than he'd like, she hadn't quite managed to work around his recovery just yet and he was able to hold centre stage well. ' _Damn it, at this rate I'm going to lose in front of Lucina! I'll be an embarrassment in front of all her friends!_ ' he thought, rolling away from another quick fire of paint, but then he saw it! This was his chance now, he had to take it. After her last round of fire, the Inkling had noted her reserves were low and had begun to build her ink stock back up by swirling around in a small puddle of ink. Chrom charged at her now, readying his sword when the girl suddenly reformed with a bucket in her hand and launched a small wave of paint at him.  
"Predictable!" The swordsman laughed.  
This time, he had read her movement and quickly rolled behind her to avoid the attack and was ready to hit her with a strong smash. Or so he thought. As he had rolled behind her the Inkling had turned on her heel and splashed another wave of the orange ink towards him. Chrom was sent flying off-stage this time, further than he had been before and nearly hit the blast-zone. The crowd went silent after a quick gasp, the stadium on the edge of their seats to see if he would make it back or not. Using all his strength, the hero managed to jump back against the knockback and save himself from hitting the edge of the blast-zone and leapt towards the stage.  
"Please make it, please make it." Lucina chanted quietly into her hands.  
Before Chrom could commit to his recovery, another ink bomb fell from the stage towards him. Before it exploded Chrom curved his body in the air to dodge around the explosion and was lucky enough to just recover from his aerial evasion below to ledge. Still in the air, he turned around and threw his Falchion into the sky, leaping up after it. However, this was all a part of the Inkling's plan. The girl had dived off the side of the stage and was swinging her weapon back towards Chrom now, stuck in a defenceless position has no choice but to get hit by her attack and bounced back off the stage and flew into the blast-zone followed by a trail of blue smoke. The stadium all reeled back in a shared, painful 'oooo'.  
"And another nice back-air finishes it, with the first win of the 'Smash On!' reunion, we have… Inkling-girl!" The announcer excitedly called out, as the cried bounced back with waves of applause.  
The fighters meanwhile all clapped in their stands while Lucina was met with another round of sympathetic pats.

* * *

Later that night, Sam had been taken to the cafeteria and watched what he could only desire as chaos ensure. A while variety of foods from various cultures all gathered: American, Chinese, Gerudo, Hylian and many more across the multiple tables. Pit had managed to snag Sam onto the table with him and a group of other adolescents and young adults. Throughout the day he had learnt that he and Pit, at least mentally, were both 18. Zelda and Link were 19 and 20 respectively, the two Robins were also 20 along with Lucina. Ike was 21 and Marth and Palutena were both 22. This was just one little sub-group which had formed amongst the larger Smash family. Sam noted the were also the adult group, the group of unsure age but all looked like they were children who also gathered the Pokémon crowd. Sam took his place next to Pit, he was the closest thing he had to a friend, despite nearly being killed by him that very morning. It was pretty much a grab what you can kind of way of eating, a special buffet to welcome back those who could make it back today. Link and Marth seemed to be competing for who could eat the most while everyone else tried to avoid or catch flying portions of food  
"Dinner around here can be kind of hectic." Pit laughed nervously.  
"Yeah…" Sam thought, reflecting on his own situation before coming here, "But it's nice, lively...I guess it's warm."  
Pit smiled and bumped his, he guessed, new friend on the shoulder.  
"Come on, grab something before it's all gone Sam." He laughed.  
Just then, the sound of two doors opening echoed from the back of the space and drew all the fighter's attentions. Entering late to the manor that night was the small pink blob with a happy smile and just as happy eyes.  
"Hii~." The little being cheered happily, standing on his tiptoes and waving.  
Everyone in sight who cared about food, even those who were normally reserved, like Robin, began to wolf down as much as possible.  
"Eafft Sahm eat!" Link seemed to command with a mouth full of rice.  
Before Sam could comprehend exactly what was happening he felt the powerful vortex of wind produced by the pink fighter sucked in table by table of food. She fighters bolted down their plates while others just surrendered their meals to the being above Gods. One it was all done Kirby let out a satisfied sigh while Link and various house members lead an angry charge against him. Sam meanwhile just watched a laughed, _'yeah this was a lot more home_ ' he thought.

* * *

 **I know I kinda said wait until next Friday, but I had this chapter done and I'd hate to wait a week for part 2 of chapter 1 of anything in fairness so I thought, eh let's release it! There will still be a launch of the next chapter on Friday, what will be chapter 2 in this series. Thank you to anyone favouriting and following this story, and a special thanks to anyone who leaves reviews! Please tell me what you liked, disliked and how to improve! I hope we'll see you next Friday, and the following Fridays past that.**


	3. Chapter 3-Mach Friday

**For the purposes of imagery, please imagine the Mii fighter to look model wise the same way as the anime-esque models of the FE/Kid Icarus look. Of course all characters belong to Nintendo and their respective companies. This is an AU telling of another fanfiction called 'Smash On!, if you'd like to see more of these characters check there, or wait till next Friday!**

 **-Also please like/favourite this story if you want to see when it updates, and always feel free to leave reviews! Getting better or being told what people like/don't like will make later chapters better and I really appreciate it!**

* * *

It was around 6am the following morning, a Tuesday according to the young, silver-haired tactician's phone. He was reluctantly checking it after the thing, for the 13th time he had found out, started to vibrate and buzz with the tune of the DK rap playing loudly and dragging the boy forcibly away from his well-needed rest. With a groan, Robin moved his thumb towards the 'end call' button and tapped it firmly, now making that the 14th missed call registered on the device. Unfortunately, not long after denying the last call, the next one immediately followed. Plastered over the screen was a selfie of himself, taken as he stood over the hero of twilight back when he had first claimed a victory over him four years prior. Whenever the name 'Link' popped up on his phone it meant only one of two things: fun, or trouble. Emitting a noise mixed between a yawn and a defeated sigh, the sleepy fighter aggressively tapped the green answer button and held the phone to his ear.  
"Link...I swear if this isn't a situation where anyone is dying, I will, and I promise you this, put you in enough of a critical condition you'll need another 100-year powernap." He growled, words slurring a little from the left-over sleep grogginess.  
"Dude you gotta move now, like right now!" The teen on the other end yelled out down the phone.  
Were those...Explosions he could hear?  
"What's going on?" Robin asked, throwing the quilt off him and rushing towards his cloak.  
"I don't have time to explain!" Link replied, "Just get here now, urgently!"  
And then the call hung up. Perplexed by the whole event, Robin simply stared at the phone blankly for a couple of moments. He scrolled through everything possible to see where exactly 'here' could be, but was unable to find anything of Link's location.  
"Dammit man, doesn't the slate come with a damn find my shekIah?" Robin grumbled, pacing towards the door.  
As he flung open the door and stepped forward, the young mage would feel the sudden pull of gravity as the foothold below him seemingly vanished and he nearly fell into a hole who lead to who knows where. Managing to grab a hold of his own door-frame, the boy pulled himself and back up into his room and looked around at the odder than usual decour. The entire floor was made of a jigsaw. Not shaped like it, not an interesting carpet or wooden flooring design, no, the whole floor was made out of possibly millions of tiny jigsaw pieces. Looking around them now, substituting in his mind for the area of the floor he had destroyed, the picture of Link's smug face was displayed over the area. He took a sharp inhale and then a long exhale. After experimenting with the opening and closing of his own door several times he had found several alternate floors seemingly prepared for him: lego, marbles, plastic balls, leaves, what he hoped was pudding, an alarming amount of jelly and then finally, Link's fan mail. The boy was about to resign back to his own bed when the sudden banging of his door took his attention away from sleep. On the other side of the door was the young hero, slamming his fists against the wooden door.  
"Robin~." He sang, his voice lined with a novel entertainment, "Come on rise and shine~, don't you have a bird song to sing or something?"  
There was a flash of green from behind the door and a second later it burst open with a powerful gust of wind. The Hylian was knocked back against the opposing wall, curling up and clutching his head as he whined in surprise and pain.  
"Argh, what the heck man?" He pouted, sitting up now, "And a good morning to you too."  
"Link, I am this close." Robin said, coming out of the shadow of his room and holding his thumb and finger together, "This close to...Heh, nice pjs." He then taunted, "Could you not afford separate pants and a shirt?"  
The set of pjs in question were a bright blue onesie the hero was blanketed in. On the front, to the right of his upper-chest, was a triforce logo that was very clearly made secondhand and not officially licensed at all.  
"Zelda got me it, she thought it was cute." Link groaned, standing up and brushing himself down, "But seriously, come on we gotta go."  
"First off." Robin interrupted, "How, just, how did you pull off any of that?"  
"I had a lot of free-time and no sleep at all." Link said, the dark circles around his eyes more noticeable now, "I at least thought you'd appreciate the effort."  
"There is nothing in this world which could make me appreciate a demonic floor of lego." Robin snapped back.  
"What about if I told you I managed to get the scoop on today's breakfast regime?" The hero cooed with a smirk.  
Pausing only for a moment, the mage then replied with a similar smile, "I'm listening."  
"Pancake day." Link said with a nod, "All you can eat, all you can top with including strawberries, chocolate, ice cream, monster guts, fish bones, mushrooms-."  
"I'm starting to worry about what that game did to your taste palette man." Robin said, feining a look of genuine concern.  
"Shut up, my taste palette is as immaculate as my fighting record."  
"Which isn't very immaculate at all."  
"Then my taste palette is immaculater."  
"That's not a word!" Robin yelled at him.  
"Okay-okay-okay." Link responded in rapid bursts, "But anyway, in my frenzy of floor-building-."  
"Still need to explain that one to me."  
"-I took the precautions and sealed Kirby in his own room." Link said proudly, "That little demon has far too much freedom when it comes to food."  
"I'm pretty sure he's started at least one or two interplanetary wars over something like this."  
"Sh, sh, sh, listen." Link said, wrapping an arm around Robin's shoulder, "This is a one-hundred-per cent Link plan. We get there first, we get the freshest, hottest and most pancakes right off the bat and we'll be all done by the time Kirby breaks down his door."

* * *

"Genius plan huh?" Robin asked angrily, scowling at the boy now.  
"Hey, I was up all night building floors of lego and jelly." He said with a shrug, "It's not my fault I fell asleep, you, on the other hand, have no excuse."  
"My excuse is that I didn't spend all hours of the night building pointless flooring for an unfunny joke!" Robin growled, pulling his arm back and making Link stumble forwards.  
The time was 8 am now. At some point, no-one knows when exactly, the two boys had nodded off in front of the close cafeteria door and someone had tied them finger-to-finger with a finger trap. As the two fighters began to fight while shoving and pulling against each-other, the hero-king simply faced away from them with a proud snicker.  
"You know that's only going to make more of a headache for us, and yourself later today right?" Robina asked, motioning towards the two boys.  
"Once I've had my coffee I can deal with anything." Marth said dismissively, "I've been dealing with Link for years now, one more morning isn't going to kill me. Besides what's the worst that could come of this?"  
"You remember the Samus incident don't you?" Ike added.  
A couple of years back, Link and Robin had made a field trip for themselves by stealing Samus' ship in order to go buy Zelda a birthday present from the city below. Unfortunately, what seemed like a simple outing turned into a man-hunt as local airports and aerial tours had to shut down due to the ship being in the middle of their route; and, when the ship eventually ran out of power it had fallen on and collapsed a series of flats. The two fighters didn't get that far before Samus and Ganon had tracked them down, but if anything as easy as buying a birthday gift was in the hands of Link and Robin, who knows where it could end up next.  
"Ugh, they have swords and we have scissors." Marth dramatically sighed, "Would you all calm down?"  
"Are you going to cut them free?" Robina asked, smiling as she knew the answer already.  
"Of course not." The prince hummed, "I paid good money for that cheap toy to torment with them in one way or another."  
"That, or you were trying another bedroom experiment." Ike teased, giving his friend a cheeky nudge.  
"I haven't had coffee yet my friend and I will not hesitate to choke the lights out of your de-steroided ass." Marth snapped.  
"Hey, it's not my fault people wanted this look back." Ike said, showing off his reduced muscle mass, "Besides, less mass means I'm faster and stronger to boot."  
"Yeah, but I think I'll miss 'I-fought-for-my-friends-for-two-weeks-and-now-I-look-like-this' looking Ike." Robina giggled, "Seeing you small and skinny almost looks unnatural now."  
"Don't say that too loud." The mercenary begged, "If Sheik hears you she'll never stop trying to make me food and-ergh." He finished, shaking his head while his body shuddered.  
"Oh yeah, where is she anyway?" Robina asked.  
"Having a longer sleep." Ike shrugged, "She arrived late last night and she's more of a fruity-brunch person now."  
"You can tell her she's too far down the crazy-muscle girl rabbit hole to be thinking of culturing herself with things like brunch." Marth said with a roll of his eyes, "Does she even know the proper knife and fork ordering?"  
The two other fire emblem reps looked back and forth at each other before laughing a little and looking at the king in disbelief.  
"For brunch?" Robina laughed.  
"You're serious right now?" Ike added.  
"I'm getting my coffee." Marth snapped, blushing as he paced away from the two.

Sam looked around the clutter of fighters walking around with their stacks of pancakes bigger than his head in most cases. Looking at some of them, he wasn't quite sure where they managed to fit all that food, but he guessed fighting and training must use up way more energy. Once more the tables of fighters had formed and the sudden wave of panic washed over him. Granted, he hadn't had as much sleep since the conversation he had just before bed, but even still he was panicking way too much over where he could sit. The night before he was lucky enough that Pit was showing him around, but now the boy wasn't obligated to keep watch over Sam, it left the Mii fighter in a state of uncertainty. But then a familiar voice called out to him and speak of the devil. ' _well, angel_ ', he thought. Pit was bumping arms with him.  
"Morning Sam." He yawned, "Sleep well?"  
"Ah, not really." Sam laughed nervously in response, "I could barely sleep."  
Before he had registered it he was already walking along naturally with the angel towards the group table they had all met at yesterday.  
"How-come?" Pit asked, sitting down and quickly tearing into his strawberry jam and cream-topped stack.  
"Well, I have a fight in three days and-."  
"Oh that's exciting!" Zelda clapped her hands together and looked towards their direction, "Your first fight here, huh? You probably want to fight another newcomer right, since it'd more intense than fighting a veteran?"  
"Actually, the opponent is undecided." Sam replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "And right now Ganon is trying to set the schedule back a day or two more, against Nintendo's wishes."  
"What?" Lucina asked, looking at the boy with narrow and accusational eyes, but upon seeing his scared face, gave him a softer luck, "Sorry, it's just rare that Ganon or anyone makes exceptions to the rules-."  
"Which she's a stickler for." Robina giggled.  
"Even for new fighters. Unless the case is serious, is everything alright? It's Sam, right?" Lucina continued, ignoring her friend's comment.  
"O-oh well sort of...Well not really." The Mii shamefully admitted, "When I moved in yesterday, I lost track of my belongings, like my sword and arm-cannon so now I'm not really equipped enough for a fight."  
Pit bowed his head a little in guilt.  
"You're a Mii aren't you?" Lucina asked, giving a puzzled expression, "You can't fight with your hands, like a brawler?"  
"Ah well-." Pit jumped in now, "Apparently he's not the best at that, like really bad, right?"  
"Y-yeah." Sam stuttered solemnly.  
"Pft, a Mii fighter who can't fight." Robina laughed, "That's so silly, you're here way too over your head Sam."  
Lucina slapped the girl lightly on the arm as the boy simply bowed his head and started to eat at his crepes.  
"Ahem." Lucina spoke now, "What she means to say is that you shouldn't give up hope. You're here for a reason like the rest of us, and while fighting without your equipment might be new, running away from it isn't an answer."  
"What's with all the gloom?" Ike asked, coming over and looking around the table now.  
"The Mii is a little worried about fighting without his sword or gun." Lucina replied.  
"Have you asked for any replacements?" Ike asked, giving the boy a kind smile.  
"Well…" Sam began to say.

* * *

The boy then began to tell the others of an event which went down the night before, after everyone had ate their meals and played some more games, when they were all returning to their own rooms to rest. When Sam had somehow, despite the ever-shifting maze of the house turning him around nearly every two minutes, made it to the corridor where he recognised a door with the Mii emblem on it, he spotted a familiar and unmistakable face.  
"Oh hey, I wondered when you'd find your own way back." She said, giving the boy a kind smile.  
The woman stopped leaning off his door and greeted Sam with an open hand to shake, the legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran. He was nervous, who wouldn't be? Beauty and such aside, she was one of the most famous and powerful representatives within Smash and Pit had even said she was Ganon's other half, in terms of management, which just made her all the more impressive. Though, she was dressed more in gym-like attire for her casual walkabout compared to everyone else.  
"Oh r-right, this place is hard to get used to. I'm Sam, it's an honour to meet you, ma'am." He held out his hand respectfully, his head somewhat in the middle of an awkward bow.  
"Samus." She said, grabbing his hand tightly.  
And two seconds later his feet had been removed from the ground as now he was in the air above Samus' shoulder and was rapidly being thrown down towards the floor behind her. His reflexes kicked in as he managed to get his hands and feet ready for the impact and with a quick kick to the floor, he rolled away from the woman while not letting go of his new defensive stance on the floor. She crossed her arms and smirked.  
"Initial instincts are a little weak." She said, looking him up and down, "Reflexes somewhat sloppy, but promising potential."  
Sam wasn't fully sure just what had happened. Handshake, sure. Greeting, check. Being launched over her shoulder, odd but it is what just happened. Was she testing him?  
"It's alright kid, you can stand up now, I just wanted to see if you had it is all." She said, giving him a reassuring wave, "You've got a fight scheduled in three days. Now I don't know what Nintendo are thinking, putting a Mii in for a fight so soon, nevermind at all, but you have one. So I just wanted to see if you were actually decent enough, I'll give you like a C for now."  
"Wait...Me, in a fight?" Sam asked, looking up at her with innocent surprise.  
"It's what you're here for, ain't it?"  
"Well, of course but…" He began to say, "Is there any chance, it could be made later?"  
"Excuse me?" She asked, her face not hiding her displeasement.  
Sam then proceeded to explain his situation to her, about his luggage and run through at the invitational were he only got third in the brawler trials.  
"Then go home." She said with a shrug.  
"What?" He asked, unable to hide the sudden breaking of his heart.  
"I can cancel that fight and we can send you home." She said sternly now, "If you're not willing to fight because you're not up to your full strength, or because you simply you know you'll lose, then you're not fit for Smash afterall."  
She was right. He knew she was right and thinking about it that way only made it hurt more. He knew that if he was going to go into a fight as he was now, with just his hands and feet, he'd most definitely lose. But, it was more than that.  
"I'm not scared of losing." He said quietly now before looking up at her.  
"Oh?" She asked, trying to hide a smirk as she stared into his eyes now having seen just a little something, "It sounds like that's the case to me."  
"Well...I am scared of losing, everyone has to be." The Mii began to say, "But more than that, I'm scared of losing, having not even been part of the competition in the first place. I'm scared of getting on that stage, and fighting a fight no one wants to see, that no one cares for is moved for. For fighting a fight where my opponent gives me pity for even being there!" He said, slamming his fist against the wall, "I'm just a Mii fighter. I don't want to be a disappointment, but more than that I don't everyone who thinks that to be proven right. I fought my way here too. I fought and worked hard. I...I want to be able to show everyone what I'm truly capable of! To not fight to win, but to fight to show I can win. I...I want to fight where I can give it 100% and show it, but right now...Three days?"  
She nodded her head. Sam bit his bottom lip, and pulled his fist back from the wall and quickly went into a bow towards the woman.  
"I'm very sorry for denying the right to battle!" He shouted, "I'll do it though, I'll fight in three days and I'll win, I'll do it!"  
His insides were burning. He was doing everything he could not to cry in front of her. She was right, running away wouldn't be doing anything and above all else, it only showed to himself that he's only a Mii fighter, not capable of much or anything amazing at all. But he had to, he had to push himself forward and give it his all. Even if it was one-sided, even if it was pointless, even if he couldn't give the most amazing fight and got pitied, he needed to make a stand, to show that he can make it.  
"Geez." Samus sighed, "You're so wishy-washy in your conviction, a stern no one minute and begging for it the next. But, I'll just assume you stumbled for a couple of seconds there." She walked closer and patted his head, "If it's possible to push the fight back by two more days, I will...And if it helps, I'll try to arrange a tutor for you, at least to polish those skills of yours so you're a little more confident."  
Sam looked up, unable to hold the tears back while also smiling widely.  
"Really?" He asked.  
"Kid, if I had a coin for every time someone here had a trip-up in self-confidence I'd be a lot richer than I am right now." She laughed, "It's how you make yourself stand up after a trip is what matters. You have the drive, and you're scared of losing for the right reasons, that enough, at least for me, makes you a little more of a C-plus."  
She walked past him now, hands in pockets and made her way down the corridor.  
"Oh yeah, I can put an order in to replace your stuff in about a week." She called back without facing him, "If you need clothes I'll make a little package for you tonight with stuff I can find, okay?"  
"T-thank you!" Sam yelled back, crying a lot more now, "Thank you so much."

* * *

"And well, she did drop some clothes off for me." Sam said, indicating up and down himself.  
The group all looked up and down him. The sweatpants and tank-top he wore were definitely Samus'. After hearing the story though, many of them felt a flash of guilt run through them. When hearing about the Mii fighter or meeting him yesterday, they had all thought less of him and even before telling his story, hearing about him pushing a battle back made them think less. But now, there was a solid respect for the boy. Even if he was shy and a little awkward, nervous and an empty well of confidence, he at least had the heart of a fighter. Even Robina gave him a somewhat sympathetic look Lucina noticed, which was very rare.  
"But I am going to fight." He said determinedly now, blushing while eating more of his breakfast, "I don't think I'm equipped enough, but it was never an option for me to run away."  
Lucina nodded and smiled.  
"I apologise for suggesting you ever were." She said before sipping from her orange juice.  
"You can lighten up kid." Ike said, ruffling the boy's hair to his annoyance, "We've all been a little doubtful of ourselves at one point. But we've got your back, I'm looking forward to it now."  
The group which had gathered around him all gave the boy a little nod and verbal world of encouragement before continuing with their breakfast. This flashed a little spark in Sam's mind now. The atmosphere around him had taken somewhat of a change and while he still felt worlds apart from the others, he felt a little closer to them than yesterday. And he was grateful for that.  
"So do you know who you're fighting?" Zelda asked.  
"The opponent isn't decided yet." Sam answered, "I think they're making the decision today."  
"It'll be me." Pit said all of a sudden.  
The group turned all their attention to the normally soft-spoken angel whose eyes were lit up with a burning intensity.  
"E-eh?" Is all Sam could say while looking at the angel.  
"I'm going to fight you." Pit responded, "It's my fault you felt less equipped yesterday, so I want to make it right. But I'm not going to throw the fight or lose either!" He said more energetically now, "I already wanted to fight you, since I was curious but now, after hearing that story, I just want to fight you more now, y'know? What kind of friend wouldn't want to help their friend out after hearing something like that?"  
Sam was a little speechless at first. The fact the angel had already considered him a friend was one thing, but hearing that he actually wanted to fight him and give a good fight too. It was more than enough to make the Mii blush and rile up his feelings and make him want to give an even better performance than he had wanted to five minutes ago.  
"Thanks Pit." Sam said finally, smiling at the angel.  
"I'm not going to lose." Pit replied with a full mouth.  
"I don't plan on losing either!" Sam said determinedly.  
"Well I'm not gonna hold back, so start planning!" The angel argued with a smile.  
"Well neither am I, so I'll start planning on how I'm gonna have to comfort you after I beat you!" Sam retorted with the same grin.  
The two boys began to laugh as their rivalry and friendship really started to begin in this moment. The group around them simply sighed, ' _and now we have another pair_ ', they collectively thought.

From behind there was a sound of smashing dishes, drawing all their attentions. When they looked now, they could see Link and robin, still tied by their fingers, on the floor with pancakes and syrup covering them.  
"What part of left don't you understand?" Robin growled.  
"The part of left which is actually right which was the direction you took." Link replied.  
"No, you were the one who went right."  
"What kind of tactician fails to communicate the ideas of left and right properly?" Link barked.  
"What kind of left-handed idiot fails to understand where left is?" Robin barked back.  
"The same idiot who trusts you to get us pancakes safely!"  
"Oh, so you know you're an idiot?" Robin chuckled.  
"I must be if I trust your sense of direction ever again." Link laughed back.  
The only person who didn't seem to be laughing was Ganon, now standing directly over them. The ominous aura was practically visible as he picked them up by their clothes with one hand and proceeded to carry them out of the cafeteria.

* * *

"I feel like this punishment is unjust." Link complained as they followed after Ganon towards the stage morph room.  
"I don't." He responded monotonically, "You smashed the staff's dishes, the least you can do is go buy replacements out of your wages."  
"I don't see why I have to go too." Robin huffed, "It was his fault."  
"Was not."  
"Was too."  
"Shut up!" Ganon barked, looking over his shoulders at the two boys who went silent, "Considering the two of you were both at scene, covered in syrup and are still tied together for some reason, both of you are to blame."  
"Can't we at least go change?" Robin complained, "We're still in our pjs."  
"Oh I know." Ganon smirked.  
"Don't sweat it Robin." Link said with a wave of his free hand, "No one is really going to care or notice, with that huge cloak of yours."  
"I'm more worried about being seen with the living blanket elf." He retorted.  
Link quickly threw his arm with the finger trap forwards and down, making the other boy stumble, but not counting that he would also get pulled down as they both hit the floor much to Ganon's annoyance.  
"Ow, how'd that one work out for you?" Robin groaned.  
"Honestly, I feel like I could've made things worse." Link said simply.  
"Just. Go." Ganon growled, pushing open the door to the morph area and directing them towards it.  
The two boys sat down in the rows as they waited to be teleported into the city. Robin raised his finger trapped hand and turned to the Hylian hero.  
"So what're we doing about this?" Robin asked, "I can only imagine it being a pain later on."  
"Hm, can you cut it with ElWind?" Link asked.  
The mage proceeded to hold his hand up as a small slash of green wind hammered down against the finger trap but proceeded to bounce off it.  
"Huh…" Robin said, blinking at the finger trap.  
"It's alright Robin, performance issues in men is-."  
Before Link could finish speaking the mage had moved his arm in such a way that it forced Link to hit himself.  
"Ow!" The hero groaned.  
"Don't hit your-."  
Link had done the same back to him and before long the two were doing it to each-other while laughing like idiots, not noticing that they were already in the city and people were staring. Once Robin had noticed, he pulled his hand away and began to walk, tugging Link along.  
"Come on, let's just do this fast so we can get back to the house." He grumbled.  
"That's the spirit." Link said, catching up with him now, "So where do we get the plates from?"  
"I thought you knew." Robin turned and asked his friend.  
"Why would I know? I thought you'd know that." Link replied honestly.  
Robin sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand.  
"Do we get any specific kind of plates?" He asked.  
"Smashable ones."  
"...Let's just go to a store and hope we pick up some decent ones." Robin surrendered, leading the way towards the shopping district.

* * *

Robin never wanted to go shopping with the Hylian boy ever again. If the birthday shopping from years ago didn't solidify it, then today certainly did. Banned from one store from fashioning 100 plastic chickens into a giant ocarina, banned from another by smashing a series of expensive china as the boy had made Robin jump in surprise with the aid of a shark-faced litter picker and finally banned from the pet store because Link just took a bite of raw trout.

"I don't regret the trout." Link argued in defence of himself, "It was daring me to."  
"I doubt that." Robin sighed.  
"You didn't see it the way I did." Link said with a shudder.  
"Anyway, let's just be glad we managed to find some nice plates." Robin said, holding up a shopping bag in victory.  
"Exactly, now we can go home." Link cheered.  
Just then, the boy's shekiah slate started to buzz.  
"Marth wants us to pick up some post for him." Link said, reading off the slate, "He's got this expensive parcel or something and since we're here we might as well he said."

Robin couldn't help but slump his shoulders at the news, he just wanted to go home. Walking around and getting banned from stores was embarrassing enough, but in pyjamas it was even worse.  
"Alright, alright." He sighed, "Let's just get this over and done with quickly."  
And soon enough the two boys had made their way to the post office and retrieved Mart's package, and when they had Link played a familiar little jingle from the slate while eyeing Robin with a wide, comical smile. When the boy seemed to ignore it Link couldn't help but pout, shoving the slate back into his pocket.  
"Don't be so boring." He mumbled.  
"Ah, excuse me." The woman behind the counter called them before they could leave, "We actually have one more thing for you. It's a letter, but due to the nature of the letter ,we couldn't just simply post it where it was intended to go. Since you're here, it's probably better with you than it is with us."  
Link held his hand out now, taking from the woman what appeared to be a Smash-signified letter of invitation.  
"Oh hey, a newcomer letter." Link said, smiling and turning it back and forth, "This is nostalgic."  
"Yeah, though I wonder who it's for." Robin said while eyeing it.  
"Wanna open it?" Link asked with a mischievous grin.  
"And how are you gonna manage that with one hand?" Robin questioned.  
"Oh yeah…" Link said, looking back at the finger trap, "Well, let's just put this in the bag with the plates and parcel and let's find somewhere we can get this fixed."  
Robin nodded and held the bag up for Link to slip the letter into and finally headed towards the exit of the post-office, walking past a man dressed in all leather and a bike helmet. Once they left Robin nudged Link with a chuckle.  
"Get a load of wannabe Doom-Guy back there?"  
"Where do you even get that much leather?" Link laughed as they proceeded to walk down one of the city's many hill roads now, "So, know anywhere we can sort this finger thing out?"  
"I may have an idea or two." Robin said, "There's some magic shops I go to when I'm looking for some potion ingredients."  
As the two boys talked they drowned out the sound of the city behind them, the people, the cars and the sound of a rapidly approaching motor-bike. Moments later Robin felt a strong tug on the plastic bag as it flew out of his hand and into the one of the same lather-wearing man they'd passed by moments earlier.  
"W...What was that?" The mage questioned, staring in shock.  
"Oy!" Link yelled, starting to run after the bike while dragging Robin with him.

Before long, the two boys were racing down on the hill after the strange man on the motorbike.  
"We're not going to catch him!" Robin yelled.  
"I have a plan!" Link yelled over his shoulder.  
"No!"  
"You haven't even heard it yet!" Link argued.  
"I don't need to hear it to know it's bad." Robin snapped back.  
"I'm doing it anyway!" Link said, facing forwards again.  
He held out the shekiah slate in front of him, the blue light of the screen shining brighter for moments before all the light started to flow out of the screen and into the air. Thousands of strings of the blue light moved in front of him, weaving themselves together into what then became the master cycle. Before Robin could pull back Link had jumped on it, the mage holding onto the front and side of the bike as he hung onto it for dear life while Link proceeded to launch them both onto the road.  
"You're insane!" Robin yelled up, "You can't even drive properly while we're like this.  
"Do you have a better idea?" Link asked.

Ahead of them ,the man in the bike helmet looked down at the plastic bag in victory. He didn't really care for whatever else was in that bag, the letter was all he needed. It was his letter and he'd come to collect it. He felt a little bad for stealing the entire thing off the toy boys, but he knew if he'd let them just go off he'd never be able to get ahold of this letter ever again in his life.  
"Hey!" He heard Link's voice shout from behind.  
The rider turned his head over his shoulder and nearly spun out of control he was so surprised by what he saw. The two fighters were balancing either side of the bike, their feet on the foot-rests and their inner arms connected by the finger trap while their outer arms each held a handle. To passerbys it looked like the most bizzare performance of motorbike acrobatics possible, but to the fighters it was their best chance at steering in their current state.  
"You sure you got this?" Link yelled across, "Left!"  
"Argh! Positive, just stop questioning it and drive!" Robin replied, leaning back and steering as they narrowly went around a car.  
"Hey, you!" Link shouted again, "Give us back the bag!"  
The rider didn't want to have to deal with this today, so as he was about to remove the letter from the bag so he could toss it back to them he was hit from behind with a sudden bolt of lightning.  
"Gotcha!" Robin said proudly, aiming another thunder at him.  
With a growl the rider turned his attention back to the road, skillfully dodging out of the way of both the traffic and raining electricity coming at him from behind. Once the road had cleared a little he slowed down to a complete halt while doing a wheelie and held his leg out to the side, meeting with Robin's stomach as the boys zoomed past him. The mage couldn't help but fly backwards off the bike, nearly dragging Link with him before nearly hitting the floor. The rider simply started to drive away now, not watching to see the motor accident in motion, he just needed to get away with the letter while he could. Acting fast, Robin held out his hand and shot two huge bursts of wind which not only carried him, but the bike and Link into the air where they managed to turn around, land and follow after the rider once again.  
"So he wants a fight huh?" Link said, smiling with excitement as they raced deeper into the city now.  
"What the hell does he want in that bag so badly?" Robin asked, "Is it Marth's package, what did he even buy?"  
"It doesn't matter!" Link answered, "We just have to get those plates back before Ganon puts us on another month of dish duty again!"  
And so the chase continued on into the deeper city.

Unfortunately, the news of the high-speed chase and traffic disruptions had reached police ears so now the current scene played out as: the rider in front, Link and Robin following close behind, the police squad chasing after them and then finally all the city centre traffic around them. The rider began to mutter curses as he dodged and weaved through traffic, all he had done today was gone to pick up his missed post, now he was involved in a high-speed chase and what made it even worse was now there were police on his tail. Even more annoying were the two fighters catching up to him and trying to grab and blast his bike every chance they got.  
"Arc-fire!" Robin shouted, sending a blast of fire forward which failed to hit its mark again.  
"Damn, he's pretty good on that thing." Link commented with a smile.  
"Don't be enjoying this!" Robin ordered, "We nearly have him!"  
The rider looked behind him again, the boys were even closer now and with the traffic getting denser he wouldn't be able to pull off any of his trickier moves either. He thought for a minute before turning a tight corner, hoping they wouldn't match his ability, but they did.  
"Damn it!" He mumbled, "What's with these kids?"  
He turned into an alleyway, ramped off a wooden plank, skidded around a corner and entered another main road and even through all that the boys were right behind him, no, they were closer!  
"Looks like staring in Mario-kart did you some favours eh?" Robin chuckled.  
"Heh, I would've sorted this by now if I weren't tied to you!" Link replied.  
This was starting to get too out of hand now, the rider thought as he reached down and pulled a knife from his pocket. Slowing down to meet with the boys, he swung at Robin who managed to avoid the first slash but then narrowly dodged the second one thanks to Link's steering. The mage slashed back using various bursts of air from elwind, but none were hitting their mark. He growled and this time aimed for somewhere else, hitting the bag instead with the slash of air as the three riders had to watch it fly up in the air on top of them. Luckily, Link's Bike had the advantage when it came to this scenario as the master-cycle then bounced up into the air while the hero reached for the plastic bag with his driving hand. The rider tossed his knife up at them, missing Link but the force of the throw was so strong it caught right through the finger-trap that tied them together. The surprise from both the boys made them knock the bag in the air instead of catching it.  
"No!" The trio called out as they watched the bag proceed to fall down and hit the pavement with a distinct smash.  
The two fighters managed to land, meanwhile the rider managed to spot something else being carried by the wind which caught his eye and he proceeded to follow it. Link shook his fist at the rider as he drove off while Robin went over to inspect the bag and reluctantly pulled out the smashed plates.  
"Argh!" Link growled, kicking the floor as he ignored the waves of police cars go past.  
"What the hell?" Robin questioned while shaking his head, "They were just plates."  
"Honestly." Link sighed, "Thieves will go after anything these days, is Marth's box alright?"  
Robin stared at the hero as he shook the box, the sound of multiple broken parts shaking around inside it.  
"Ugh, he's gonna bitch about this for weeks." Link groaned, slumping against a wall now.  
"And we still need to get plates." Robin added.  
"...Wanna just get plastic ones and say we couldn't find proper ones?" Link asked, smiling and laughing.  
"At least they won't break...And I hope they don't get picked up by a crazy bike thief." Robin laughed with him.

* * *

"And these are?" Ganon asked, eyes flickering back and forth between the two boys.  
"Plastic plates." Link answered with a proud nod.  
"Alright…" Ganon said before taking a deep breath, "And I'm assuming you got these plates because in the space of one night the entire world lost its entire resources and can no longer make china or porcelain, right?"  
"Ganon!" Link said dramatically, holding his hands over his heart like he had been stabbed, "I'm hurt that you think this purchase wasn't made using 100% of my brain power."  
"I'd be more offended if anyone ever thought I bought plastic plates for adults using my brain." Ganon retorted.  
"Listen, listen." The hero began to explain, "We bought these plates only because we smashed some, right? So I thought, what if we just bought plates which don't smash? That way, we never have to replace these again and me and Robin don't need to go back into the city in our pyjamas again, genius right?"  
Ganon simply sighed and walked past the boys, telling them to just drop the plates off at the kitchen and to apologise to the staff for their disruptions. Once the boys had done that they found their way to the social space where the usual crowd of adolescents, plus one or two faces that weren't there yesterday.  
"We're home~." Link sung happily, skipping over towards Zelda.  
Robin meanwhile fell onto the nearest bean-bag he could with the biggest sigh in his record history of sighs.  
"You seem exhausted, all you did was buy plates right?" Lucina interrogated, raising an eyebrow at the boy.  
"Uh-huh." Robin grumbled sleepily, "But it was just a long day."  
"Did you guys pick up my post?" Marth asked, tapping his foot on the floor.  
"Oh, yeah." Link said, passing him the plastic bag delicately.  
"What did you get Marth?" Zelda asked, looking at the sizeable box curiously.  
"Well, my room seemed a little plain, not enough colour. So I asked for my family to send me something to brighten it up and they've sent me a priceless family heirloom that-what. The. Fuck." Marth enunciated every sharp syllable as clearly as possible before scowling at Link, "How?"  
"Well some things happened and the finger trap broke, so we kinda dropped it when that happened." He explained.  
Robina could only laugh, clutching her sides while the swordsman cycled through breathing exercises to hold him back from killing the Hylian.  
"It's what you get for trusting him with a simple task." Sheik said bluntly, "I wouldn't even trust him to make me dry toast."  
"Oh you're here now as well, are you?" Link pouted while looking at the bandaged girl.  
"And thankfully you were out all day, so I've had a nice and peaceful one." She said, sipping her tea and leaning on Ike's arm.  
"Whatever." Link huffed, sitting cross-legged on the floor now, "Did I miss anything while I was out?"  
"Well you just missed another round of video-game thrashing from the Mii kid." Robina giggled.  
"Sam." Lucina corrected.  
"Yeah, him." Robina grumbled.  
"Honestly, after all the mario tennis matches I kinda want him to lose his first match." Ike laughed, "It'd make a nice change."  
"You're terrible!" Lucina said with cutting words.  
"I was kidding!" Ike chuckled in defence, "I'm sure he'll be fine, but still if he's against Pit even if I was actually rooting against him I doubt I'd have to worry."  
"Why?" Link asked, tilting his head like a confused puppy.  
"Well like…" Ike said, looking around awkwardly, "Well he's not that confident in his abilities and I'm not looking down on him for it, but he is just a Mii."  
The group of teens around him all sort of nodded in union. While they had gained some respect for him that morning and even reassured him, they didn't expect him to be able to do much in the match except try. Which was good enough for the blue flame swordsman to like him.  
"Well that's dumb." Link said bluntly, "He's obviously going to win."  
"And what makes you think that?" Lucina asked, puzzled by how straight Link was being for once.  
"Because, he's here isn't he?" He asked, "Like, in 'Smash On!'."  
"Well, yes but-." Palutena was saying.  
"Then he'll win." Link said with a confident nod, "And I'll cheer for him if no-one else does."  
"Is he a close friend of yours?" Zelda asked, looking at her boyfriend with interest, "You only met him yesterday, right?"  
"Yeah, but we're the same." Link replied, "No one really thinks I'll do well against the likes of Bayonetta or even some of the newcomers but, you guys hope I do. And I've seen it in his eyes, he'd hope I do well no matter the opponent, he has the courage to believe. So I'll believe in him too."  
"Well, let's wait and see then." Marth said with a smirk, "I'd be willing to make a fun bet out of this."  
"Whatever." Link yawned, standing up and turning to Zelda, "You coming to bed?"  
"I'll follow after you in a bit." The girl replied.  
The hero then kissed her cheek and made his exit as Ike changed over television to the local news channel.  
"Woah look, someone's been arrested." He announced.  
"Earlier today a crazy impromptu street race seemed to occur in central Smashville." The news-anchor began to talk, "Though two suspects are unnacounted for, one suspect police were able to catch is the infamous underground street racer and organiser, Mach Rider."  
The footage on the TV then cut to shots of the police dragging in the arrested rider while he tried to thrash about, shouting something about an invitation letter while the police simply ignored him.

* * *

While Link and Robin had reunited with the rest of the group, Sam had parted moments earlier to go get a shower and head off to bed. Deja-vu seemed to hit him as he turned the corner and leaning against his door was the blonde woman from the night before.  
"Oh, Samus." He said while coming closer and bowing respectfully, "Hello."  
She wasn't alone this time though, with her was another newcomer Sam had seen before now too. His name and face had been splashed all over discussion boards with mostly negative opinions circulating, and that was of course the heel pokemon, Incineroar. Sam gave a similar bow and greeting to the pokemon too.  
"You don't have to be so formal." Samus chuckled, "We're not exactly your superiors or anything."  
"I like it!" Incineroar laughed, "It's showing of a burning passion and respect!"  
Sam looked up and blinked as he swore he understood what the pokemon was saying. His eyes were drawn towards a collar around the feline pokemon's neck which seemed to be emitting a low electronic buzz, he assumed it was some sort of translator.  
"S-sorry!" Sam shot up rigidly while apologising which only made the pokemon laugh again.  
"It's fine." Samus said, giving him a kind smile, "I just wanted you to know that I managed to pull a few strings and your match has been pushed back two days and we'll have a veteran battle take place the day you were supposed to be fighting."  
"Thank you so much!" Sam said gratefully, about to say more when Samus cut in first.  
"And, while I know you've committed yourself to the fight and improving yourself for it...I figured you might need a little confidence boost and training when it came to hand to hand combat." She continued, pointing to Incineroar now, "So for the next five days you'll go on a special training camp with this guy."  
"I'm going to turn you into the bestest, rowdiest, burliest, most sensational, stupendous, revolutionary fighter in all of Smash, and imma only do it, in five days. With burning passion!" He roared while striking a pose.  
"Yes, quite." Samus said with a total lack of enthusiasm, "So this is your chance to keep your word to me. When you go on that stage, I don't want to feel an ounce of pity for you, understood?"  
"Yes ma'am!" Sam yelled with a nod, "When do we start."  
"Right now." Incineroar said, picking the boy up and carrying him on his shoulder.  
As the confused boy began to squirm in the pokemon's arms the woman simply smiled and shouted that she'd send him some replacement clothes. At this point, she honestly didn't know what to think. She'd seen the footage of him fight, and even with his sword or gun, he honestly only gave him a 25% chance he'd win against the angel. But now, with the passion inside him and Incineroar's training, even if he was using his hands, she's much more willing to give him a 50/50 chance in her mind of victory. Who knew. After it was said and done she shrugged and headed off into the manor, the gym was always waiting for her.

* * *

 **O** **ne thing that was a key component of the original Smash On was the side adventures often Link would get involved in and drag people into. And while I dont think this was as good as things used to be, it's nice to go back and try to write a comical story. So please let me know what you think and we'll see you next friday!**


	4. Chapter 4-Lucina

**For the purposes of imagery, please imagine the Mii fighter to look model wise the same way as the anime-esque models of the FE/Kid Icarus look. Of course, all characters belong to Nintendo and their respective companies. This is an AU telling of another fanfiction called 'Smash On!, if you'd like to see more of these characters check there, or wait till next Friday!**

 **-Also please like/favourite this story if you want to see when it updates, and always feel free to leave reviews! Getting better or being told what people like/don't like will make later chapters better and I really appreciate it!**

Finally, after an hour and a half, the game was starting to go all according to keikaku. Yes, her plan had gone into full swing. The pawns were in a perfect position, creating a tight vanguard against the opponent's remaining knight. Her queen and rook were primed in the perfect position to launch a clean, swift and orderly checkmate once Rosalina had fallen into the trap set by the bishop. While she wasn't Fire Emblem's resident tactician, Lucina was more than qualified to be a leader. She respected and understood the rules, the flow of order they brought and attuned herself to it. Like life, chess is a game of rules, of order, and once you could see the flow of order brought by the laws of the game, you could see all the possible ways to work within it. A king must follow the rules in the strictest of fashion, because they are at the top, the leader, and must set the example for their legion to follow. Lucina considered herself the king or at least she aimed to be. She followed the rules and laws the most of any other fighter, and as such the order of combat was all clear to her.  
"Luma dearest." Rosalina spoke softly, "Would you move my bishop three spaces diagonally right, and that would be check Lucina."  
Lucina couldn't believe it. Somehow, there had been a hole in her wall of pawns that left just enough of an opening for a bishop to push into check. What was even more infuriating than her oversight was that Rosalina herself wasn't even looking at the board, simply sharing her sight with the blob of a star as she worked away on a crossword. She always did like to keep her mind in top form, always focused on a new puzzle. Lucina, despite her flash of shock and stress, smiled admirably at her opponent and idol. Of course, the woman in charge of keeping galaxies in order could see through this obvious hole, but Lucina had been so darn close! ' _Just cool down and take it easy, she's just delaying her own checkmate by pushing me into check. Run the retreat and let the troops charge on the next assault_ ', she thought. The aggravating part was that her king only had one place to move to, an obvious lead into whatever Rosalina's next move would be, but one she would have to abide with for now.  
"You know, that wasn't a bad push." The princess hummed, "Had you moved your king two turns earlier, I might be the one in check now."  
"Was I really that close?" Lucina asked, eyes glimmering with hope now.  
"Mhmm, that would've been your forth forced check against me." Rosalina continued, flipping the page over into her next puzzle.  
It wasn't a great track record Lucina would admit, only three checks that went intentionally made by the princess, but Rosalina was a certified genius when it came to games and tactics. Though, she took her words as praise and a sign of improvement compared to when they first started playing back when they were both newcomers. So she was glad that in some regards she had changed, improved, as Roslina continued to make move after move, somehow further pushing herself away from a check position and driving Lucina further towards checkmate, any improvement seemed to be minuscule now.  
"How did you even bring it back this quickly?" Lucina questioned, "I had sworn I'd accounted for all you reasonable moves."  
"You had." The princess replied, "So I went for an unreasonable one first and followed from that."  
She tracked back each turn in her mind, back to when Rosalina had first moved her bishop and then sparks flashed. Lucina had been blindsided by a move that was such a huge gamble, so unreasonably chaotic, that she had failed to account for it. In the flow of logical order, it would make no sense for Rosalina to make such a move and yet she had, and that move had flustered Lucina.  
"A blind spot hidden in the choas, hmmm." Lucina hummed.  
She looked upon her board of soldiers and visualised the battles. The pawns were being towered over by the enemy rooks, shields right in front them that they could not pass. The only path would herd them into the line of the queen and bishop, who steaded their blades and spears ready to strike at the defenceless pawns. She could protect her troops, sending the knights into the battle of the rooks, but her king would be open. Worse. He'd be mated. Her eyes flickered over the black and white grid, studying for any possible exit route she could take to extend her turns, but as far as she could see, there were none.

* * *

Before the girl could even touch her next piece, the sound of crashing and cutlery hitting the floor echoed in the cafeteria. She swore if she found Link and Robin on the floor again, she'd-but no, this time she was surprised to see two of the newcomers snarling at each other. The young girl she recognised from her dad's embarrassing defeat and towering above her was the ferocious purple alien. Lucina quickly abandoned her game and paced over towards the scene, noticing the girl had pulled out her paint gun and the dragon-like being had his claws raised.  
"The two of you!" She suddenly barked, "Stand down immediately! What's going on here?"  
The Inkling girl nearly jumped out her skin, turning to the older girl while shouting in her unintelligible language while Ridley simply leaned back in his specially made chair with a chuckle.  
"Okay, okay, easy does it." Lucina spoke softly, crouching down and petting the girl's head, "I'm sorry, but I can't understand you. Can you tell me your side of the story then?"  
"Heh, sure." The space-pirate chuckled, "Well I was sitting here, eating some fine calamari when I saw the little squid thing looking at me with horror. So I simply asked which dead uncle of hers was I feasting on."  
Lucina took note of the small orange-headed girl's reaction. Amongst the angry gurgles, she could see a genuine amount of upset and embarrassment in her eyes, enough to make the swordswoman upset too at Ridley's remarks.  
"How utterly insensitive of you." Lucina replied bluntly, "How dare you tease a child in such a despicable way, what is actually wrong with you?"  
"Can't help how I'm born princess." Ridley laughed smugly, "You got a problem with that?"  
"Don't you ever call me princess again, Barney the edgy dinosaur." Lucina snapped.  
By now some attention had focused on the small standoff happening between the two girls and the space pirate. Lucina's comment had visibly irked the reptilian being, making him stand up and loom over her now with his spear-ended tail in sight.  
"You want to say that again?" He asked, his tone like winter.  
"If you're threatening me, I hope you understand the rules around such a matter and the consequences of whatever action you take next. But I warn you, it'll take more than your butter-knife tail to scare me, I've faced a dragon before."  
"Ridley!" The loud booming voice of Samus echoed from across the cafeteria, followed by the clicking of her heels as she stormed over, "Stand down. Now."  
Ridley simply snarled as the aggravated woman paced over to the scene quickly, his eyes focused on Lucina now completely and still making no immediate sign of cooling down.  
"If you so much as even snap your claws at her I will throw you out of here personally." Samus barked, "And you will not come back."  
With that notion Ridley seemed to slump back into his chair casually, still glaring at Lucina the entire time.  
"If you and that fancy toothpick of yours do want to throw-down sometime, I'll be more than happy to drag your skull across the stage." He threatened, every word echoing a growl.  
"Girls, you move back too." Samus ordered, stepping between the two parties, "Go get some lunch."  
As much as the Inkling didn't want to move back, seeing that Lucina was complying without batting an eye, she followed the older girl's path. Lucina slumped down onto the bench of her table with a sigh, the other fighters giving her a sympathetic look.  
"That looked tense." Robina spoke first.  
"It was." Lucina grumbled, "What the hell is his problem?"  
"I don't know." Robin replied this time, his eyes reflecting a cold anger, "I would've swung for him if Samus hadn't stepped in."  
"You would've been worse than him then." said Lucina, "All that would've accomplished is you being kicked out with him, and I'd rather not imagine this mansion without you-w-without any of you."  
The male tactician couldn't help but smile a little and focus on his sandwich while his female counter-part simply rolled her eyes.  
"Still, just because he's a villain in his game doesn't mean he has to be one in reality too." Sheik said, midway through feeding a reluctant looking Ike, "Baby, open wide."  
"Sheik it's fine I can eat my-"  
"Now." The woman cut his sentence off quickly and coldly.  
The boy then swallowed down whatever she fed him with a forced expression of happiness, though he did love her, her food was another story. Lucina, like everyone else, didn't know how or when the couple of Ike and Sheik were made, but all they knew was they were together. It was a mysterious pairing, to say the least, and at times it seemed a little like the ninja was keeping him in a strange, blackmail sort of relationship but he had sworn many times everything was consentful and that he loved her back. Though he still never shared the story of how they got together in the first place.  
"Now, is it delicious?" Sheik asked.  
"Absolutely scrumptious." The swordsman answered in a deadpan fashion.  
"Now mean it." The girl replied, just a deadpan.  
The swordsman remained silent, doing what he thought was best and taking another bite of whatever lunch Sheik had made him. Lucina swore she could see the bandages move into somewhat of a smile, though she didn't stare long. Sheik scared her.  
"So, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" Link asked, pointing next to Lucina.  
"My friend?" Lucina questioned before looking to the side and noticing the Inkling girl, "O-oh. I didn't even notice, well hello there."  
"Wayagu." The girl replied with a respectful nod.  
"Can anyone translate that? I think it was a hello." Zelda asked, looking around her group.  
"Leave it to me." Link said with a proud smirk, "I'm a master of language...So what're you doing here little Inkling?"  
The group listened as the girl proceeded to gesture and vocalise somewhat of a narrative to the group, though no one seemed to follow.  
"So, what did she say?" Marth asked, uncharacteristically curious in what was happening.  
"She said fuck." Link answered.  
The Inkling blushed a little and flailed her arms about while trying to argue with the Hyrulian male.  
"Don't be so crass in front of a child!" Lucina raised her voice, "Honestly, could you just be serious for once."  
"I don't think he has a serious bone in his body." Zelda laughed.  
"Zelda!" Link whined, holding the Inkling girl back with one hand on her head.  
"Can she write something down?" Ike suggested.  
The group watched as the Inkling girl started to scribble down on a note-pad. However, when they were presented with her writing, it was nothing but unintelligible orange squiggles and symbols.  
"Guess that's a no too." He chuckled.  
"Oh-I have an idea!" Pit chirped, walking over while clicking away on his phone.

"Hello?" Sam's voice came from the other end of the line moments later, "Wait, Pit? How'd you get this number? I can't really-"  
"No phone-calls!" Incineroar growled in the background, "Only burning passion!"  
There was the sound of an explosion, debris flying everywhere while Sam could be heard crying out in surprise.  
"O-Okay, I think I got away." He continued, "What's up?"  
"Can you translate this for us?" Pit asked, handing the phone over to the Inkling girl and putting it on speaker once she was done.  
"Okay well, it might not be entirely accurate but-oh geez!" Sam cut out for a second as another explosion happened, "Why is there lava? Why? Anyway-I think she said her name is Splatty, she's fourteen and is grateful to Lucina for helping her out, so she wants to join with the gang-shoot, I-I gotta go!"  
The call hung up and left the group of teens and young adults looking between the young girl and Pit.  
"So he's being worked hard huh." Robina chuckled.  
"I told you." Link said with a proud smirk.  
"Well, it's nice to meet you Splatty." Lucina said, holding her hand out to the small girl who simply blushed and took it politely.  
"Garyu!" The girl nodded with a smile.  
"Wait, how did you know Sam could translate that Pit?" Zelda questioned.  
"Oh well, I looked up some of his fighting records and well, turns out the Miis native language and the Inkling's isn't that different." Pit answered.  
"Guess he might be full of surprises after all." Ike added.  
"Pft, yeah right." Robina laughed, "I'm still betting Pit'll kick his ass."  
"Language!" Lucina snapped.  
"Well, I'll win for sure!" Pit laughed, wings flapping with excitement, "Honestly, I'm looking forward to it."  
"Try not to get too excited and lose focus kiddo." Ike chuckled.  
"I could say the same to you." Marth interrupted, "You have a fight tomorrow too."  
"I do?" Ike questioned, now checking his phone.  
"You'll be going against me." The hero king said with a smirk, "I'll make sure to redeem our franchise."  
"And what if I win?" Ike asked with a confident smirk.  
"Then you'll redeem our franchise." Marth laughed, "It's a win-win either way."  
"Man, already starting with a lot of fire emblem matches huh?" Pit sighed.  
"It's been exactly one so far, you sound just like the fans. Don't exaggerate." Marth barked, "Besides, a match between the best swordsman here, and Ike, will more than get the crowd happy."  
"Ha, you mean here until Roy arrives, right?" Ike replied with a smirk.  
That remark seemed to make the hero prince shrink a little, leaving him to grumble as he sipped on his morning coffee.  
"So what do we all have planned for today then?" Zelda asked, "I was thinking maybe we could play Monopoly or something if we had the time."  
"I'll have to decline sorry." Lucina waved apologetically, "I actually have plans today elsewhere."  
"Oh, well that's fine." Zelda said with an understanding smile.  
"What plans could you possibly have?" Link asked, "All you do is boringly abide by the rules."  
"I-I do plenty of things that are fun without dipping my feet into your pool of chaos!" Lucina argued back, "Not everyone has to goof off and cause trouble to enjoy themselves."  
"Yeah, but you miss out on a lot then." Link replied, "Isn't that right Robin?"  
The mage initially scowled at Link for pushing him into a corner all of a sudden before coughing and looking at Lucina.  
"Well, I suppose we do sometimes do things without you." He answered honestly.  
"Whatever." The girl simply sighed, walking away from the group now.  
"Looks like you upset her." Robina teased her male counterpart.  
"E-eh?" The boy questioned, looking around for any kind of help.

* * *

While she had been disheartened by Robin's confirmation of something she already knew was true, it didn't need to be said so loudly in front of people like that. Back when everyone was last together, she had reluctantly been tied into many of her friend's mishaps and did her best to avoid Link's little 'adventures' when possible, only because she just couldn't get into it or didn't like breaking Ganon's rules. 'Why did he have to say it? Stupid Robin' she thought, fidgeting with her keys at her room door when she heard a familiar little gurgle from behind. As she looked behind herself she could see the Inkling girl had followed her from the cafeteria.  
"Oh, I suppose you did want to spend time with me didn't you Splatty?" Lucina asked with a kind smile, "Well, I don't know how much I can amuse you, but you're free to spend some time in my room while I work."  
The Inkling girl only seemed happy to be given such an invitation, smiling and nodding as she skipped inside the girl's room. Lucina's room was more library than it was bedroom. She had two walls that were lined with shelf after shelf with all multi-coloured covers, collectibles and potted plants . In the further corner to the right, next to her bed, was a long mahogany desk with a desk-light and an open laptop on it.  
"You're free to sit and read if you want." Lucina continued, gesturing towards her bed for the girl to sit on.  
Lucina quickly took a seat at the desk, opening up a recently edited file and skimming over it quickly, just to get the rhythm of what she had written previously before clicking away at all the different letters on her keyboard. As much as she liked being a fighter and aimed to be the strongest one out of her group, she liked writing just as much. Dreaming of becoming a published author one day, or even just a head-writer of the next game in her franchise would satisfy her, just having something to be proud of she had written was all she wanted. Though, she sighed as her typing came to a stop suddenly. In her games she had fought against countless armies, dragons and even here at 'Smash On!' she fought a wide range of monsters, but none terrified her worse than writer's block.  
"Ryumi?" Splatty asked, crawling down the bed towards Lucina.  
"Hm? Oh, did I sigh too loud?" Lucina asked, "Sorry, I'm just struggling a little with this story. Though it's a little embarrassing so you don't want to hear it more than likely."  
Despite saying that, Splatty only seemed more interested in what Lucina had written. So, shyly, the swordswoman handed over her laptop to the younger girl who began to read through the first chapter quickly.  
"Oh, I suppose I never congratulated you for your match the other day, did I?" Lucina added, trying to distract herself from the embarrassment of having someone read her story, "You did amazingly well, while my dad isn't the best, you really fought well."  
The Inkling girl looked up and smiled victoriously, passing back the laptop to Lucina before running across her room. Like she was on autopilot, the girl had managed to climb her way up one of Lucina's shelves and retrieved a certain book, which she returned to the owner and gestured between it and the laptop. Lucina knew the contents of the book well but was surprised by the younger girl's enthusiasm for such a niche text.  
"I don't quite...Oh, are you saying they're alike?" Lucina asked, the Inkling nodded, "Well, I did pull my influence from this book I guess. If anything I'm more surprised you know about this, not many people are interested in war stories."  
The Inkling girl shook her head and then pulled out her phone, displaying it to Lucina as she flickered through some of the photos on her device. Many were shots from the Splatoon game series, of her covered in decorative medals with a man dressed as a general. The blue-haired girl managed to piece together that, like herself, Splatty had stared in a game series about war and as such, took interest in the idea and exploration of narratives to do with war.  
"I see." Lucina smiled, "Well, if you tend to read stories like this the way I do, your ability to read your opponent so easily makes a little more sense now."  
"A story of broken families surviving in one land. A story of those who follow the justice of order, against those living in the anarchy of chaos." Robina said aloud, her eyes wandering across the screen.  
The two other girls jumped in their seats as the silver-haired girl had seemed to appear from nowhere. Lucina sighed and quickly jumped at her friend, failing to snatch her laptop from her.  
"Robina! Don't just read it aloud like that!" Lucina begged.  
"Eh? But it's fun." The girl giggled in response, continuing to read the story.  
The more she read, the more Lucina curled up into a blushing ball on the floor while Splatty only seemed to laugh and be enchanted at the same time from watching and listening to the girls.  
"Man, you have a real clear bias showing towards the order family...Is that meant to be the case?" Robina asked, raising an eyebrow, "Because it reads like you want us to see both sides equally."  
"W-well I can't help that now can I?" Lucina asked, "You know my feelings on the matter...Plus how am I supposed to write the chaos family any other way than negative? They do live in chaos."  
"Lucina." Robina spoke calmly with a serious tone, "You're smarter than I am, I know that much at least, but even I know things aren't so plainly black and white."  
"I know." The blue-haired girl sighed, "How did you even get in here?"  
"I let myself in." The girl giggled with a wide grin, "Snatched one of your spare keys a few years back, I'm glad they don't change the locks here."  
"So what do you want Robina?" Lucina asked, "I do want to get back to work on that."  
"Well, I was here to come annoy you a little and try to convince you to come play Monopoly with everyone...We got a hold of the Hoenn edition that hasn't been released yet, but~." She almost sang, "I think I want to try help you write this."  
"I appreciate it, but helping me by giving me your insight won't help. I tried visualising through Link's mind to make things seem more realistic on the chaotic end, but as you can see it hasn't worked well."  
"That's why we're going to take a quick, rule-breaking field trip." Robina replied.  
"Robina."  
"Only a little, itsy-bitsy rule!" The girl said defensively, "Come on, it'll give you some first-hand insight you haven't had in a long time. And if you enjoy it, you'll probably be able to write even better with that reference material too. Plus, Splatty can come along and have some fun too!"  
The Inkling girl nodded and cheered as Robina made the suggestion.  
"See? She's in for it, come on~."  
"And what exactly is it you have in mind?" Lucina asked.  
"Well~."

* * *

"Everything about this is a bad idea and I want out." Lucina said, looking at the large collection of foliage in front of her.  
"Come on, don't you want to get to the root of your issues?" The girl asked with a smirk.

The two other girls simply sighed and rolled their eyes. Robina had dragged the small party to the inside gardens of the smash manor. A large, possibly infinite, space full of all kinds of plants and nature from across the universes the fighters came from. Before them was an entrance what appeared to be a tropical jungle, bordered off with a large fence and a sign saying 'Do not fight the plants!'. Below the sign was a crudely drawn image of Link's face with a red X going through it, surprising no one.  
"The sign says to not fight the plants." Lucina argued.  
"And? Do you not walk on the grass if a sign says not to?" Robina laughed.  
"For the record I do. It's damaging to the local ecosystem." Lucina replied, which only made her friend laugh even more.  
"You can't be serious, I guess I under-e-stem-ated you, huh? Huh?" Robina continued, emphasizing her own jokes.  
"Igurlge." Splatty muttered, her tone was enough to translate her disappointment.  
"But seriously, I don't think this is a good idea...Can't we do something a little, safer?" Lucina asked.  
"You're literally holding a sword and nearly started a fight with an oversized lizard this morning." Robina retorted, "You'll be fine~, come on~."  
Not waiting for Lucina to give a sound argument back, the girl already cut a hole in the wall with her Elwind and slunk through it, followed by Splatty and then eventually Lucina. The jungle environment itself was pretty beautiful, and only grew more luscious the deeper the group ventured. Vibrant spectrums of colours surrounded them as they were bombarded with a symphony of multi-coloured, an orchestra of plant life so loud they could go blind. The smells were pleasant too, a mix of sweet and enticing fragrances hung in the air and seemed to direct Robina to where they needed to go. After a short while the group came to a small opening surrounded by trees, like a small arena and opposing the way they entered was a collection of green pipes.  
"Here we go~." Robina said with a smirk, dashing off into a bush and coming back with some tennis rackets.  
"Where did you even-" Lucina was asking before the girl cut her off.  
"I keep these here, I come to practice often."  
Robina began to slide off her heavy coat, wearing her standard casual get up and spinning the racket in her hands before swooshing it in the air. She smiled as she found herself comfortable with the equipment again and went over to help Splatty get used to swinging hers. Lucina was a little puzzled by the rackets sure, but more so she was confused by why she actually went along with this and how much 'fun' could she experience in doing so. Rather than the vague sense of 'freedom' the others seem to get when they stretch and push against the rules, right now she just felt anxious and confused about what was going on. Nothing was certain, nothing was orderly, it was like she had lost her sight.  
"So how do we fight plants with these?" She asked, inspecting her racket carefully.  
"Eh?" Robina laughed, "You think you can fight with a tennis racket? Pft, you're a riot Lucina. These aren't for fighting, they're for playing tennis."  
"But-"  
"Don't sweat it." Robina giggled, walking past her friend and tapping her shoulder, "You'd only feel bad if you actually got into a fight. This is simply just pushing you into a new experience, you'd never have snuck into this jungle if you weren't prepared to break the rules a little. Now come on, they should be waking up."  
Lucina felt a little ease from her friend's words. It was true after all. Just seeing the sign and the border had always steered her away from entering this place, but now she was here and still not technically breaking the rules. Playing tennis couldn't be the same as fighting, right? Some order had returned to her world and it did help give her a little better of an insight into the freedom of her friend's chaotic lives, that extra push of freedom they got. Her thoughts would be interrupted however when the pipes at the back of the space began to shake and slowly, rising from three of the ten in sight, where three red-faced piranha plants.

"Alright, girls get ready." Robina said with a smile as she readied her tennis stance.  
"How exactly do we play tennis with these things?" Lucina asked, looking around, "I don't see any balls anywhere."  
Almost as if they were answering her question the three plants which had risen from the pipes began to have their stems bulge before spitting out balls of fire towards the girls. Unlike how they appeared in the Mario games, the flaming balls were affected by gravity and would fall to the ground as the bounced towards the trio. Robina smirked confidently as she moved forward, swinging her arm and back-handing the first ball towards where it came from, just narrowly missing the head of the red and white plant.  
"Aw, dammit, I'll get it next time!" She said to herself.  
Lucina was a little luckier and receiving and returning the fireball. Whether it was due to her being more used to swinging a sword around or just natural talent, the ball of fire had been lobbed into the air and landed perfectly against the head of the sender. She watched as it winced and shrunk back into the pipe it had come from, earning a 'nice shot!' from her silver-haired friend. Splatty had managed to get an early return successfully too despite being new to the concept of tennis, bouncing the fireball back without an issue. As the original two plants retreated, two more followed and mixed up their shot patterns. One high, one fast and one seemingly normal.  
"Robina you get the toss!" Lucina ordered, running forward and swinging towards the ordinary one, "Splatty handle the fast one!"

The two girls followed her orders and moved into positions where they could best handle the returns. Robina who still needed to warm up was moved to the back, giving her the most time to ready herself for the swing, and Splatty who was the fastest of them was in charge of handling the quickest flame. Lucina couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in this odd game of tennis, taking command of her team and watching her plans follow suit in an orderly fashion felt good. While she had on some level embraced the chaos of breaking rules, she had still managed to return an order to it and follow through with it herself. The moves going back and forth with each play were clear and she could see all of them, commanding her friends where to go and what to hit had them returning shots faster than the piranha plants could dish them out. Things were going smoothly until a black and orange variant of the plant popped up from one of the pipes and shot out an extremely fast and strong purple fireball.  
"Ah be careful!" Robina called, "I can never return that one!"  
Lucina smiled confidently as the purple flame shot towards her, it wasn't something she hadn't encountered before. With a spin of her racket, she took the same stance she would do when performing a counter, taking the impact of the fireball before launching it back stronger with a powerful swing. The swing had been so powerful in fact, that it had ripped the piranha plant from its pipe and it flew back into the foliage.  
"Woah, that was so cool Lucina!" Robina cheered, "Keep up returns like that and we'll be great."  
Of course, sometimes it just wasn't possible to return the shots. Sometimes being outnumbered, outsped or possibly out thought, the girls would have to either dodge out the way of the flames or watch them sizzle out before them. Despite no one keeping an exact score, Lucina couldn't help but feel frustrated when the plants seemingly laughed at her failures. It only drove her to return more of the shots, and that she did. Further instructing her teammates the three managed to find a perfect sense of positioning where they could all cover for each other and manage to fend off any stray fire balls. With one last overhead ball flying over Lucina, Robina leapt up in the air and spiked it back towards the final plant creature which retreated into the pipe with a whimper. The trio was left bent over standing, sweating and panting as a sense of victory washed over them.  
"Is that...Are we done?" Lucina asked between pants.  
"I think so, we only ever rally back and forth for about an hour usually." Robina huffed, standing and stretching now, "Still, that's the most near perfect set of returns I've been in. You two were good."  
"Wyumi!" Splatty added with a smile and pumping her fist.  
"Yeah, wyumi!" Robina laughed while copying the younger girl.  
Lucina smiled softly and wiped her brow. She hadn't had such an intense workout in a while, and she was filled with a sense of pride despite pushing the rules a little.

* * *

"So are we done here then Robina, or do you have a secret five-a-side series with the mushrooms too?" Lucina chuckled.  
"Hahaha." The girl fake laughed, "Just let me get my stuff and then we'll split, okay?"  
Before she moved, however, the sudden loud growling from the direction of the pipes attracted the attention of the girls. Emerging from the bushes was a fully grown piranha plant, its curved green neck turning into a series of little yellow roots.  
"Oh my gosh." Robina squealed, covering her mouth, "Look at its little stubs! That's so funny and cute!"  
"Cute?" Lucina questioned before turning her attention back to the plant, "Um...Are you alright?"  
The creature took a negative response to her question, snarling as its red and white head would change between that colour and then black and orange.  
"Oh, Lucina!" Robina continued, "That must be the one you ripped from the pipe...I didn't even know these things could move this way."  
"Yeah, though I'm more curious as to why it's growling at us." Lucina replied, keeping a firm gaze on the creature.  
The head and neck of the plant began retracting back, compressing the being until it was as small as a Pokeball before the next violently extended like a spring and shot towards Lucina. Acting quickly, she stepped to the side and swung her racket which made the creature's head ping off into the direction of Robina, who narrowly dodged before it smashed into a tree and cut through the trunk. The head retracted as quickly as it had extended while the upper half of the tree now fell atop Robina's cloak.  
"My tomes!" She called out, running quickly over to the fallen tree, "Cover me!"  
"Looks like we're fighting after all." Lucina sighed, pulling the blade from her side, "It attacked first, it's fine. You're retaliating."  
Splatty quickly ran over next to Lucina and took a battle ready stance too as they stared down the plant which snarled louder at them. It was the first to move as it rushed towards them, leaping up into the air and spinning its leaves around it like a buzzsaw, with the same sounding death wir to follow. Lucina dashed towards it, swinging her blade forwards and clashing with the spiky leaves of the plant, repeating slashes over and over to clash with it and push the creature back. It landed on its two stubby legs, just about reacting to Splatty's ink bullets as it rolled back and dodged. 'It's pretty fast' Lucina thought, evaluating the scenario in front of her and drawing up ways to attack within the space they had. What would be the best approach? What range can the plant deal with? What kind of other attacks does it have? They were all unknowns at this point, so she had to focus on finding the data.  
"Splatty, stand back and cover for me with ink or your fancy kicks if you have the room, understood?"  
Lucina questioned.  
Splatty nodded, holding her gun up and ready while Lucina ran towards the piranha plant once more. The creature had begun dashing at Robina who was struggling to pull her cloak free from below the tree, but Lucina intercepted by grabbing the thing by its neck and tossing it away.  
"That's it Lucina, yeet the plant!" Robina yelled over her shoulder.  
"Can you not right now?" Lucina yelled back, not taking her eyes off the plant.  
'Alright, its dash speed is fast. But it can't fight too well in the air, makes sense for a plant I suppose. So I need to come at it with enough aerials as possible', she thought, stepping forwards slowly.

Lucina took the lead this time, running forwards and jumping just a little off the ground so she could slash forward. Her forward aerial had always been fast, but with the training from today she felt even lighter on her feet than ever. Every time she slashed she could land and repeat quicker than ever, a series of attacks so quick and pressuring that the piranha plant couldn't help but retreat. Splatty chose her moments to fire away with her splattershot, missing only barely as the creature could easily moves its neck around the series of ink bullets. But Lucina was able to take advantage of this, grabbing it again and slamming it on the ground. She waited to see which way it would roll before turning her body around, swinging her blade overhead and forward smashing her blade down on the creature, making it fly across the space. From the side, Splatty watched Lucina land the smash and dashed forwards, leaping into the ear with a drop-kick and launching the plant towards the pipes where it had come from. The piranha plant just landed shy of the tip of the pipes, smacking into the trunk of them while Splatty took the opportunity to unleash a series of ink bullets towards the foe once more. Taking no time to recover, the creature's neck started to bulge and then push the bulge up as a spiked iron ball was shot from its lips, going through the ink and flying towards the Inkling girl. Lucina had managed to run in front of her partner and took the counter stance, slicing through the metal ball with ease but was blinded from the creature charging up its spring neck attack once more. The head of the creature smashed into the open Lucina, sending her flying back into a tree with a loud slam. The girl rubbed the back of her head, overcome with a sense of dizziness.  
"Damn, that one hurt." She groaned, wincing and looking back up in the direction of the fight.  
The plant had taken the surprise of the fighters into consideration and used the fleeting moment to dash past Splatty in the direction of Lucina. The Inkling girl growled as she followed after, catching up to the plant and hitting it once with a weak kick before launching it skywards with her up-smash.  
"Boo-yah!" She cheered as she watched the plant fall from the air in the distance.  
"Hey Lucina, you alright?" Robina asked, running over fully dressed now.  
"Yeah, I'll be fine." She replied, standing up now, "Wasn't expecting the head injury but I'll take it."  
"So what do we do?" Robina asked, looking in the direction of where the plant had fallen.  
"We fight it again." Lucina answered, "And we win."

Moments passed without the plants return, but the sudden eruption of a loud roar which shook the trees readied the girls for a greater challenge.

* * *

"Now, when I drew Link on that sign, I thought the message would've been abundantly clear." Bowser sighed, holding the snarling plant in one of his hands and looking down at the girls, "But I didn't expect to find you three here ruining my little special garden babies. Especially you Lucina, I'm surprised!"  
"Ah, we're sorry Bowser!" Robina bowed apologetically, "Honestly it's my fault, I usually play tennis with them and I just wanted to share-"  
"You shouldn't be playing tennis with them anyway!" The king roared, "They're plants! They're there to make oxygen, look nice and shoot fireballs."  
"Well, one of those things is not exactly like the other is it?" Robina pouted.  
"I'm very sorry to have interfered with your garden in such a way." Lucina bowed next, "I should've been more sensible and stopped Robina from taking us too far in."  
"Hey!" Robina yelled.  
Bowser's eyes moved back and forth at the trio of girls. He then sighed and pulled the plant closer to him, petting its head like it was some sort of chiuaua.  
"Well, I can't really stay mad at you of all people can I Lucina? I can't thank you for the number of times I've asked you to look after my kids...Still, just don't let it happen again. My poor babies are probably tennis junkies now and I'll have to cater to that...Piranha plants are very smart, but easily addicted things you know?"

"I promise you won't find me anywhere near your private garden, thank you." Lucina replied with a smile.  
"Yeah, same for me I guess." Robina added unenthusiastically.  
Splatty simply nodded, she was a little fearful of this giant reptile man after already dealing with one today. The girls then made their leave of the clearing, leaving Bowser alone with his plant to which he looked at sympathetically.  
"You poor thing...You're probably addicted to fighting now aren't you?" He sighed, "What to do with you then...Hm, I'm sure Ganon said we were missing a fighter or something like that, maybe there's a slot open for you hey, would you like that little fella?"  
The piranha plant began to laugh.

Later that night Lucina had tucked herself cosily into her bed, looking up and down her own work with a smile as she continued to type away at her story. Changing elements of both characters and stories for the better, she hoped, based on what she had learnt throughout the day. She was tired, but she kept pressing forward just to reach the end of the next paragraph. She just had to, she had to finish and win against this novel she was writing. And then maybe if she could do that, she could beat Rosalina at chess tomorrow.

* * *

 **Thanks for coming back and reading! Only four more days, in text, until Sam's return fight so I hope you look forward to that! Happy one more week until Smash Ultimate too btw, I hope anyone who reads this and plays smash will enjoy next Friday to the fullest. Make sure to tune in next Friday!**


	5. Chapter 5-A weeks delay, Sorry!

**Hey! Just a quick update to say sorry about there not being a chapter this week!**

 **I'm currently a University student and coursework has been so time-consuming. I've written half of the chapter, the other half just needs doing now which I can work on over the weekend. I won't put it up until next week though, which gives me time to get ahead and makes future uploads smoother and means there can be times I can take a week off. But hey! Happy Smash Ultimate day, I hope you all have fun with it, those who have it!**


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